Camellia saluenensis

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Common products:
- Ornamental shrubs and container plants: Camellia saluenensis is cultivated and sold by nurseries for garden and landscape use, valued for its evergreen foliage and early‑spring flowering. Plants are marketed as potted shrubs, patio containers, or landscape specimens for year‑round visual interest.
- Rootstock for tea (Camellia sinensis): The species is used as a grafting rootstock to improve cold tolerance and vigor of cultivated tea plants, with grafted individuals exhibiting higher survival rates in temperate tea‑growing regions. Grafting is performed using seedlings of C. saluenensis as rootstock, and the resulting plants often show improved cold hardiness and higher yields in cooler tea‑growing areas.

Properties relevant to use:
- Phylogenomic reference: The species has been included in phylogenomic studies of the tea family (Theaceae) using chloroplast DNA sequences; leaf tissue is routinely sampled for DNA extraction and deposited in public sequence databases (e.g., GenBank), providing reference material for systematic and evolutionary research.
- Cold tolerance: Controlled freezing tests indicate that Camellia saluenensis tolerates temperatures below –10 °C, a threshold well below that of most cultivated tea varieties (LT50 ≈ –5 °C). This high freezing resistance underpins both its ornamental hardiness in temperate gardens and its utility as a genetic donor for breeding frost‑resistant tea hybrids. The assessment is based on electrolyte leakage assays, a standard method for measuring freezing tolerance.
- Evergreen habit and early flowering: The plant retains glossy, dark‑green leaves throughout winter and produces pink to white blooms from late winter to early spring, providing seasonal color when other woody plants are dormant.

Sustainability and sourcing:
- Native to southwestern China (Yunnan, Sichuan), Camellia saluenensis occurs in mixed evergreen forests and is not listed as threatened. Wild populations are protected in several nature reserves, and commercial propagation relies primarily on cultivated stock rather than wild harvest. Seed viability is high, with germination rates typically exceeding 80 % under optimal conditions, and cuttings root readily under standard mist propagation, supporting large‑scale nursery production.
- Cultivation is maintained through nursery propagation (seed and cuttings) and the species is listed in horticultural databases such as the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Plant Finder, indicating consistent availability from commercial growers. Seedlings and grafted rootstocks are sold through specialty tea and ornamental plant suppliers.

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No reference genome is available on NCBI yet. We are constantly monitoring for new data.

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