Betjan
A named Assam seed stock rather than a cultivar, associated with a particular estate and propagated as seed rather than as cuttings. Seed stocks of this kind were the professionalised middle stage between simply saving seed from a good field and running a clonal breeding programme: a garden with a reputation for good seed sold it, and the name travelled with the material.
Where it sits in the botany
Betjan is recorded under Camellia sinensis var. assamica, the variety group one level above cultivar. It is associated with India, which is where it was selected or is most widely planted rather than the only place it grows.
Also transliterated as: betjan.
Where it came from
An Assam seed stock recognised in Indian planting practice and distributed as seed for new plantings.
How firm this is: Inferred rather than taken from a primary breeding or registration record. The name and its status as a seed source are documented in Indian planting literature; the estate history and dates were not verified against a primary source.
What the plant is like
Assam-type material giving a variable population, since seed from an open-pollinated garden is never uniform. Its interest is as a record of how planting material moved before clonal propagation.
What it is usually made into
The categories this cultivar is typically processed into. It is a statement about common practice, not a limit — processing decides the category, and a cultivar can be taken down more than one route.
- Black tea — Tea taken deliberately through full enzymatic oxidation, giving the dark leaf, amber-to-red liquor and malty or brisk character most Western drinkers think of as simply 'tea'.
Teas in the catalogue made from Betjan
Other cultivars in Camellia sinensis var. assamica
- Assam indigenous jat
- Benifuji
- Benihikari
- Benihomare
- Benikaori
- Camellia sinensis var. assamica
- East African seedling tea
- Fengqing Da Ye
- GMB 7
- Kiara 8
- Lingyun Baihao
- Manipuri jat
- Menghai Da Ye
- Mengku Da Ye
- Miang landrace
- PH1
- Shan Tuyết
- Sri Lankan seedling tea
- Tai Cha No. 8
- TRFK 301/4
- TRFK 303/577
- TRFK 306/1
- TRFK 31/8
- TRFK 6/8
- TV1
- TV23
- TV25
- Yinghong No. 9
- Yunkang 10
- Yunkang 14
- Yunnan Da Ye Zhong
- Zi Juan
- Zi Ya
Sources
- TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ
This page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis throughout. No breeding register or institutional record stands behind the account above, which is why the origin note carries its confidence in the open rather than reading as a citation.