Camellia sasanqua Thunb.

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘A shrub with open branches, which are reddish and villous when young; leaves one inch broad and three long, alternate, oval, obtusely dentated, emarginated, thick, and of a dull green; flower small, single, comosed of five petals, of a beautiful white, sessile, terminal.’  [Berlèse Monography p.50/1838].

‘It is of recent introduction to Europe, having been first received from China in 1811, by the East India Company.’  [BR f.12/1815].  C. sasanqua flore pleno was figured later, the plant supposedly introduced by Drummond in 1823.  [BR f.1091/1827].  ‘Palmer’s Double Sasanqua’ was figured in 1819.  This plant was introduced by Captain Rawes and grown at Thomas Palmer’s, Bromley, Kent.  [BM t.2080/1819].  ‘A native of China and Japan, introduced about the year 1810.  It is a slender shrub, with weak, pendulous branches, flowering in the autumn with us.  Kaempfer mentions many varieties of this plant.  [Camellia sasanqua pleno-carneo] was introduced from China: it is a beautiful kind, flowering freely, and the blossoms are peculiarly delicate and pleasing.’  [LBC no.1275/1828].

History at Camden Park

Listed in all published catalogues [T.277/1843].  A plant was presented to the Sydney Botanic Garden on December 24th 1845 [RBGS AB].

Notes