Rather than planting tea seeds, the Charleston Tea Plantation grows cuttings in a nursery for four years. The fledgling bushes are descendants of the same Camellia sinensis plants that were first brought to the Carolinas in the 1700s by French botanist Andre Michaux.
An employee holds dried tea leaves at the Charleston Tea Plantation on Wadmalaw Island, S.C. Photo by Ariana Lindquist/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Image sourced from NPR. Available at: https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2016/08/05/188-chastea1_custom-209b681e8736e3aa5bf3362c1a2dc819253731e6.jpg?s=800&c=85&f=webp