Yunnan
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Yunnan is a mountainous province of south-west China, bordering Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, and the region with the greatest genetic diversity of Camellia sinensis var. assamica. Genetic work on ancient tea trees identifies distinct gene pools around Pu'er, Lincang and Xishuangbanna in the Mekong valley, consistent with more than one local domestication. Its combination of altitude, monsoon rainfall and free-draining acid soils is the environmental template later planters looked for when moving the crop. Yunnan is where the overland tea trade began: compressed tea from these districts was the cargo carried north and west by mule.
Read in · 1
Evidence · 2
- Genetic analyses of ancient tea trees provide insights into the breeding history and dissemination of Chinese Assam tea (Camellia sinensis var. assamica)
- Indications for Three Independent Domestication Events for the Tea Plant (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze) and New Insights into the Origin of Tea Germplasm in China and India Revealed by Nuclear Microsatellites
Timeline
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Connections · 0
Assembled narrative · 1
Assembled from 11 blocks · 2 evidence · 8 related
- Story
- Yunnan is a mountainous province of south-west China, bordering Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, and the region with the greatest genetic diversity of Camellia sinensis var. assamica. Genetic work on ancient tea trees identifies distinct gene pools around Pu'er, Lincang and Xishuangbanna in the Mekong valley, consistent with more than one local domestication. Its combination of altitude, monsoon rainfall and free-draining acid soils is the environmental template later planters looked for when moving the crop. Yunnan is where the overland tea trade began: compressed tea from these districts was the cargo carried north and west by mule.
- Knowledge
- Yunnan
- Connections
- Camellia sinensis
- Tea Horse Road (Chamagudao)
- Tea-for-horse exchange between China and Tibet
- Evidence
- Yunnan holds the primary genetic diversity of Camellia sinensis var. assamica, with distinct gene pools around Pu'er, Lincang and Xishuangbanna and north-east India near the south-western range limit.
- Nuclear microsatellite data separate China type, Chinese Assam type and Indian Assam type tea and support multiple independent domestication events rather than a single origin.
Observed changes · 0
No public Signals are attached to this object. Signals show what changed and when it was observed — never a direction or a rank.
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