Camellia japonica, known as common camellia, Japanese camellia, is one of the best known species of the genus Camellia. Sometimes called the rose of winter, it belongs to the family Theaceae. It is the official state flower of Alabama.
Camellia japonica is a flowering tree or shrub, usually 1.5–6 metres tall, but occasionally up to 11 metres tall. Some cultivated varieties achieve a size of 72 m2 or more. The youngest branches are purplish brown, becoming grayish brown as they age. The alternately arranged leathery leaves are dark green on the top side, paler on the underside, usually 5–11 centimetres long with a stalk (petiole) about 5–10 millimetres long. The genus Camellia was named after a Jesuit priest and botanist named Georg Kamel. The specific epithet japonica was given to the species by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 because Engelbert Kaempfer was the first to give a description of the plant while in Japan.
