tea tree

English

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

tea tree (plural tea trees)

1. The tea plant (Camellia sinensis), from which black, green, oolong and white tea are all obtained.
2. The tree Melaleuca alternifolia, from which tea tree oil is obtained.
   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 77:

     It was a subject requiring the figure. The figure of a girl standing in the water, dappled by light and shade through the tea-tree, with the sunlit bank behind her. Bradly scanned the lagoon up and down, searching the clumps of mangrove for the figure of a girl.

3. A shrub or small tree native to New Zealand and southeast Australia (Leptospermum scoparium).
4. The kanuka, Kunzea ericoides.
5. The duke of Argyll's tea tree (Lycium barbarum), also known as wolfberry or matrimony vine.
6. The shrub ti (Cordyline fruticosa).

Synonyms

• (Leptospermum scoparium): manuka

Hypernyms

• tree

Derived terms

• Tea Tree Gully
• tea tree oil

Translations

Camellia sinensis — see tea plant

Melaleuca alternifolia

Finnish: paperikaarnamyrtti German: Teebaum (de) m, Australischer Teebaum m Greek: τεϊόδεντρο (el) n (teïódentro)

Leptospermum scoparium

Chinese: Mandarin: 茶樹 / 茶树 (zh) (cháshù) Finnish: ruusumyrtti (fi) German: Südseemyrte f, Manuka-Strauch m, Manuka-Busch m Maori: kātoa

Kunzea ericoides — see kanuka

Lyceum barbarum — see wolfberry

Cordyline fruticosa — see ti

Further reading

• tea tree on Wikipedia.Wikipedia