Among the rich tea tree germplasm resources in China, there is a large number of non-artificially cultivated big tea trees, commonly known as wild big tea trees. It is usually a type of tea tree that survives long-term evolution and natural selection under certain natural conditions, and is different from the “wilderness tea” that was abandoned after artificial cultivation. Of course, this is comparatively speaking. Before the cultivation and utilization of humans, the tea trees were wild, and the cultivated tea trees were domesticated by wild tea trees. The Yi people living in the Ailao Mountain and Wuliang Mountain areas in Yunnan Province still have the practice of excavating wild tea trees in the front house.
There are mainly five concentrated distribution areas in China. The first is C. tachangensis distribution area, the second is C.crassicolumn distribution area, the third is C.taliensis distribution area, the fourth is C.gumnogyna distribution area, and the fifth is C.assamica. Var.kucha. There are also a few scattered in Hainan, Fujian and other provinces. The wild big tea trees are mainly concentrated in the south of 30 degrees north latitude, especially in the vicinity of the 24 degree line, and spread along the Tropic of Cancer. This is consistent with the geographical distribution of Camellia, and it has important value for studying the evolution of Camellia.
Since ancient times, the wild big tea trees discovered in China are the best in the world in terms of early time, big tree, large number, wide distribution and rich genetic diversity. Chinese wild big tea trees are distributed in the southwestern part of China. More than 100 wild large tea trees have been investigated and detailed records.
