Camellia sinensis

The botanical name given to the tea plant, whose leaf buds and leaves are used to produce tea. Green tea, black tea, white tea, oolong, pu-erh tea and black tea are all harvested from this same species, but are processed in different ways in order to attain differing levels of oxidation. Kukicha (twig tea) is also harvested from Camellia sinensis, but uses stems and twigs rather than leaves.