Tea trees are classified according to the size of their trunks, including tree type, semi-arbor type and shrub type; if they are divided according to the size of their leaves, there are three types: large-leaf species, medium-leaf species, and small-leaf species; There are three types: primitive type and evolution type.

1. Small trees 2. Trees 3. Shrubs

Arbor-type tea trees are tall and tall with obvious trunks. The large wild tea trees that grow in the virgin forests of Yunnan and other places are all arbor-type tea trees. These tea trees have thick trunks and high branches. If they are allowed to grow naturally, the tree height can reach several meters or even more than 10 meters. During the tea picking season, tea pickers often have to use ladders to climb to the trees to pick tea. In ancient times, it is said that monkeys picking tea may be an ecological phenomenon that appeared in the arbor-shaped wild tea forest.

1. Upright 2. Semi-expanded 3. Expansive

In the process of northward propagation and evolution of arbor-type tea trees, due to the influence of low temperature and relatively dryness, the tree type gradually became shorter and gradually evolved into shrub-type tea trees. Most of the tea trees widely distributed in the tea areas of the Yangtze River valley in my country are shrub-type tea trees. These tea trees are short in shape, have no obvious main stem, and have lower branches and many branches. Especially when pruning and picking, they tend to form a steamed bun-shaped crown. Many branches, dense buds, and resistance to picking are the characteristics of shrub-type tea trees. The tea trees cultivated in the hilly areas of the Jiangnan tea area, due to different cultivation methods, pruning and picking methods, have formed clusters, strips or carpets of tea gardens without branches.

Half-tree type tea tree, also known as small-tree type tea tree, is an intermediate type tea tree between the tree type and the shrub type. The tree type is generally not as tall as the arbor type, but it has an obvious main trunk and lower branches. This kind of tea trees are often seen in the tea areas of Guangdong and Fujian. Arbor-type and semi-arbor-type tea trees can also dwarf the tree shape, increase branches, and form a tree shape suitable for people's picking height under the condition of artificial pruning to control the growth of the main stem.

Tea trees are divided into large-leaf species, medium-leaf species and small-leaf species according to leaf shape. The shape and size of tea leaves are closely related to the size of the tree. Arbor-type tea trees tend to have larger leaves, and shrub-type tea trees tend to have smaller leaves. The large-leaf tea trees distributed in Yunnan and Hainan are suitable for making black tea because of their high content of tea polyphenols; the small-leaf tea trees distributed in the tea areas of the Yangtze River Basin have relatively high amino acid content and are suitable for making green tea. The middle-leaf tea trees distributed in Taiwan, Guangdong, and Fujian are generally suitable for making oolong tea.