How to identify camellia plant?

Do camellias like sun or shade?

This is an excerpt from the book Sunflowers, published by Little, Brown and Company in 2026.

It is being republished on the occasion of Sunflower Fest, a national celebration of the sunflower that will be held from January 10-13, 2026.

A group of people in northern New Mexico were getting ready to do some work on their property. The area they were in was remote, almost hidden by mountains and forest. They'd already cleared the site where they'd build their house, and had been putting up a steel pole fence around it. Now they were putting up a row of posts and stringing barbwire between them. They were going to put the wire up around the property, too, to make sure no one else came along and messed with what they'd done.

Then they started to put up a fence between the post rows. For some reason, they needed to make a hole in the ground and insert a post into it before they put the wire on top. They were putting the post into the hole and tightening the wire onto the post. The wire was on top of the post, but there was still a gap. It didn't look like a lot, but if someone got through the gap, he'd have plenty of room to work.

Then they hit a problem. A big pine tree grew on the site, and it was getting in the way. They couldn't get a post past the tree because the tree was there, and they couldn't cut the tree down because it was their property and it wasn't theirs to cut down. So they decided to go into the backwoods and take the tree down with a chain saw.

They walked to the edge of the woods and looked around. Suddenly, someone started shooting at them. They turned to run. Before they got all the way back to the road, they heard three more shots. They ran back to the road, turned to run back into the woods, and stopped dead in their tracks. There were two guys in a pickup truck. They were pointing a rifle at them.

They'd just been shot at and nearly shot themselves. They looked at each other. They knew they had to get the hell out of there. But it was late in the day and they were getting dark. There were no houses anywhere near. If they walked into the woods, they would walk right into a bear trap or into a landmine.

What do camellia leaves look like?

It's a question I've been asked a number of times, and it took me a while to figure out how to make a clear and concise response.

I am really happy to share what I have found. So if you are a plant enthusiast and like to know about the history of camellias as well as the science behind them and their flowers, read on.

A Camellia leaf, seen here growing in a glass container in the Conservatory at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Camellia Leaves. The leaves of the camellia (also known as camellia) are lanceolate or elliptic in shape. Camellias are deciduous shrubs or small trees with evergreen branches and rounded or oval leaves that are usually bright green. Some cultivated species are highly attractive for their brilliant fall foliage. All camellia species have a single white flower in late spring or early summer and one to three green to purple, egg-shaped fruits which contain one to six seeds. The leaves of a camellia fall once they are no longer needed for photosynthesis. At this time, the leaves are usually quite large and may be up to 20 cm long and 3 cm wide. However, not all species have leaves of this size. Some, such as C. Crenata, have smaller leaves; C. Verticillata, C. Pulcherrima, C. Grandiflora and C. Sasanqua have large, broad leaves. In some cases, the camellia leaf is larger than the rest of the plant. This condition is most commonly seen in older plants. For example, the leaves of the camellia C. Verticillata reach up to 40 cm long, 5 cm wide and weigh around 12 grams. The leaf margins are recurved and may have a purple tinge.

Camellia Leaf, seen here growing in a glass container in the Conservatory at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. In general, in spring, camellias bear a single pure white flower. The fruit consists of an oblong-elliptic capsule containing two or three seeds.

Many camellias are native to subtropical or tropical America.

What are camellia leaves used for?

Comellia leaves are used for many things.

They can be eaten or brewed into a tea, they can be used to brew into a medicine, they can be used in cooking to flavor the food, and they can be combined with many other plants to make products such as pectin, gums, and jellies.

There is also another popular legend about their use. According to legend, they are the only plant that can cure snakebites. The theory goes like this: when a snake bites a person or another animal, the venom goes into the blood stream, and by chance it meets a Camellia leaf. When the leaf is crushed, the venom is neutralized and cannot cause any harmful effects to the organism.

In the modern world, of course, medical science has proven that camellia leaves don't contain any venom, so the story has little basis in reality. But the tale persists because the plant itself was so fascinating and rare that naturalists decided to include it in their "Natural History" books.

Today, the camellia tree lives in Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The Camellia sasanqua (Camellia obtusa) can grow up to 30 meters tall, but most specimens reach about 6 meters. It is a deciduous shrub with white flowers and glossy green leaves with prominent veins. It can grow from northern Japan to southeastern China.

The Camellia japonica (Camellia sasanqua), Japanese camellia tree. It blooms during April and May. The blossoms are white and fragrant.

Leaves of the japonica, on the other hand, are mostly dark green with a slightly wavy or spiral-shaped margin. The flowers are white and fragrant.

The blooms of the Japanese variety are usually smaller and less fragrant than those of the Chinese variety. Japonica trees are popularly cultivated in Japan and across southeast Asia. The leaves of the japonica tree are more delicate than those of the sasanqua, but you can find them both in nurseries around the world. They are widely used in floral arrangements, but they are also beautiful additions to outdoor gardens.