LDP1
A Vietnamese hybrid selection combining material from the southern highlands around Lam Dong with the northern research-station stock, and now one of the country’s most widely planted cultivars. Vietnam’s two tea regions are genuinely different — the northern midlands and highlands, and the Lam Dong plateau around Bao Loc — and the cultivar name records a cross between them.
Where it sits in the botany
LDP1 is recorded under Hybrid, the variety group one level above cultivar. It is associated with Vietnam, which is where it was selected or is most widely planted rather than the only place it grows.
Registration code: LDP1. A breeding or registration code identifies the selection in an institutional register and is often the name a grower uses when the trade name is not.
Also transliterated as: ldp1, ldp-1.
Where it came from
A hybrid selection made in Vietnam’s national programme combining Lam Dong and research-station material, released alongside LDP2.
How firm this is: Inferred rather than taken from a primary breeding or registration record. The pairing with LDP2 and the general parentage are consistently reported; the release year and the exact cross were not verified against a primary source.
What the plant is like
Adaptable and high-yielding, used for both green and black manufacture. Its wide adoption is part of why Vietnamese planted area has shifted away from the Trung Du population.
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'.
- Green tea — Tea whose oxidation is halted early by heat, keeping the leaf green and the cup fresh, vegetal or marine in character.
Other cultivars in Hybrid
Guides covering this cultivar
- How a tea cultivar is made, and why it takes decades — Every named plant in the cultivar catalogue is the output of a process that runs for twenty to forty years, mostly at public expense, and ends with a plant that growers may or may not adopt. Knowing the process explains why cultivars have the traits they do.
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.