The nomenclature refers to Shui Xian as a bush or tree. The pictures I've
seen indicates it is a tall bush rather than a tree. It has no trunk or
limbs. In our nomenclature it would be a strappling with trunk no larger
than an inch or two. I've seen pictures of tea trees with the plucking done
by people on ladders with five foot elevation for ten foot high limbs. I
think the Chinese word for tree means something different than our
description.

Jim

"Cameron Lewis" > wrote in message
m...
> Lewis Perin > wrote in message
>...
> > (Cameron Lewis) writes:
> >
> > > "Space Cowboy" > wrote in message
link.net>...
> > > > [...tea from trees rather than bushes...]
> > >
> > > I've got several teas that come from tea trees, some wild some not.
> > > Menghai produces a wild tree green pu-erh that's quite good. All of
> > > the dan cong family oolongs come from trees rather than bushes
> > > (phoenix, shui xian, etc...)
> >
> > When you mention Shui Xian I assume you mean the rare strain of Feng
> > Huang rather than the common Fujian oolong?
> >
> > /Lew
> > ---
>
> The sources that I've gotten Shui Xian from list it as a member of the
> dan cong group which is by definition a tree tea. I wasn't aware
> there was a bush variety. What is the difference between the Feng
> Huang variety and the common strain?
>
> Cameron