However, its wild populations are shrinking due to human caused fragmentation of the plant's natural habitat and from the excessive harvesting of the leaves for the tea market.

[4] The flowers are creamy or white with numerous stamens, by chance creating the appearance of a fried egg.

[5] It grows primarily in the southwestern section of Yunnan and in neighbouring areas in Thailand and northern Myanmar.

However, the closer similarity may also be due to human selection (which causes reduction in genetic diversity) as C. sinensis var.

C. talensis can be easily crossed with C. sinensis, and the resulting crossbred plants are intermediate between species both morphologically and chemically indicating true hybrids.