Plant & Botany
A tea bush propagated from a cutting rather than seed, ensuring it is genetically identical to its parent.
Clonal plants give predictable, repeatable cup quality and have powered the modern specialty industry. Seed-grown gardens, by contrast, produce more genetic variation and are prized in older Chinese and Taiwanese estates.
Related terms
From the Journal
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In a remote Yunnan forest stands a tea tree estimated at 3,200 years old. It's still leafing each spring. People are still climbing it.
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The Tea List dispatch
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