(C.japonica), Curtis, 1814, Botanical Magazine; Aiton, 1812, Hortus Kewensis as

‘Anemone-flower’d’: First brought to England from China in 1806, it was described and illustrated

in a great many horticultural publications of the time. The flower is the prototype of the

"anemone forms with 5-6 large, outer guard petals with emarginate apices and a central cushion

of ligulate petaloids, 7.5-8 cm across. Colour turkey red, becoming very dark in some

conditions. Buds, round, developing dark brown, leathery edges to the scales. Leaves, dark

green, glossy, broadly-elliptic to very broadly-ovate margins shallowly serrate, apices short

acuminate. Habit is open, vigorous and spreading. Its old Chinese name of ‘Po Chu Cha’ is

written as ‘Baozhu Cha’ in Pinyin transliteration system and translates as "Precious Pearl

Camellia". Because its sexual parts are reduced to the pistil only, it was much used as a seed

parent by such early Camellia hybridists as Chandler of England and Macarthur of Australia,

so that, generations later, its genes have flowed into hundreds of modern cultivars. Synonyms

include: ‘Waratah’, ‘Anemoniflora Waratah’, ‘Mrs Sol Runyon’, ‘Honey Comb’, ‘Waratah

Ancien’, ‘Waratah Purpurea’, ‘Waratah Sinensis’, and erroneously as ‘Red Waratah’.

Orthographic variants and errors include: ‘Anemonae Flora’, ‘Anemonaeflora’,

‘Anemoneflora’, ‘Anemone Flora’, ‘Anemoflora’, ‘Anemone-flowered’, ‘Anemonaeflora

(Waratah)’,’Anemoninaeflora’. Gao, Jiyin, 2007, The Identification....Outstanding Camellias,

p.422; New Chinese synonym ‘Lianhua’.