| Common Name : | Japanese camellia, Rose of winter. |
| Botanical Name : | Camellia japonica |
| Family : | Theaceae (tea family) |
| Photo Taken : | Ireland |
Camellia is a flower from East Asia. More specifically from Japan, Korea, and few part of China. But these days this flower is available as an ornamental flowering plant in many countries across the world. The flower has a similarity with roses (in appearance), that's why this flower is also known as 'Rose of winter'.
Binomial name of the flowering plant is Camellia japonica. It belongs to the plant family Theaceae. The genus name of the plant is taken after the 17th century Czech missionary Georg Joseph Kamel (in Spanish Camello). He worked at Eastern Asia, specially at Philippines. His book is one of the first books on flora and birds of Philippines. He was not a botanist but studied on flowers and birds (just like me). The species name japonica was given by the guru Carolus Linnaeus (father of binomial nomenclature or scientific name, whatever you say). And obviously the word japonica came from the word Japan!
Camellia is a shrubby plant that grows up to 20 feet in height in usual cases. It grows well in partial shady place (i.e. under the oak or similar large trees is a perfect location). Leafs are dark green at upper side and grayish at underside. They are leathery and glossy. Shape of the leafs are lens or elliptic. Leafs are alternately arranged around the branch. Camellia is a slow growing plant but evergreen.
Flowers of Camellia are available in different colors as there are plenty of variants are being cultivated across the world. The exquisite flowers are having plenty of petals (double flower) as a whirl. The cultivars are having more petals than the wild one. Flowers are having numerous yellow stamens at the center. In wild the blooming season is between January to March.
The famous Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore (রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর) has a poem in Bengali named Camellia (ক্যামেলিয়া). Inside the poem it was mentioned that the flower is rare in our region (India + Bangladesh).
The dark glossy leafs of Camellia plant.
Flower bud of Camellia.
It is not a rose, it is Camellia. True.
Semi withered petals of Camellia flower.
Photos of this article were taken from the Botanic Garden, Ireland. It was the month of March 2016.
This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icwow.blogspot.com/
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