UBC Department of Asian Studies in Buddhist tradition. The design (courtesy of Asian Studies MA student in Japanese Literature and Visual Culture and graphic designer Julien Butterlin) does indeed gesture in this direction, but the flower depicted is in fact that of Camellia sinensis or Thea sinensis, the tea plant whence many teas are derived. A genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae, Camellia sinensis is used to harvest white tea, green tea, oolong, pu-erh tea and black tea. Tea is the second-most widely consumed beverage in the world after water, and has played and continues to play such a central role in all
Camellia oil is a sweet seasoning and cooking oil made by pressing the seeds of "C. oleifera", "C. japonica", and to a lesser extent other species such as "C. crapnelliana", "C. reticulata", "C. sasanqua" and "C. sinensis". Relatively little-known outside East Asia, it is the most important cooking oil for hundreds of millions of people, particularly in southern China. Camellia oil is commonly used to clean and protect the blades of cutting instruments. Camellia oil pressed from seeds of "C. japonica", also called tsubaki oil or tsubaki-abura (椿油) in Japanese, has been traditionally used in Japan for hair care. The camellia