Topic: Learning leaf shapes

One thing that I would very much like to learn is the ability to distinguish cultivars/varietals by looking at the leaf. Of course I can just pay attention to the shape of the leaf of the teas that I drink, but if it's as common as they say for producers to use things like Siji in place of Jin Xuan orr others in place of TGY, then I could very well end up teaching myself the entirely wrong thing. Now I understand that TGY has a little notch on one side at the base of the leaf, but that's about all I know. Does anyone know of any good resources for learning this?

Re: Learning leaf shapes

Tenuki started doing some research on different cultivars. It would be really cool to have pictures of distinctive features, but I am afraid different processing will result in 100s of unique specimens.

His work is here.
http://wikicha.com/index.php/Camellia_Sinensis

Re: Learning leaf shapes

Some images and text of different yancha cultivars are here: (login required and doesn't work in Firefox AFAICT) http://www.sanzui.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=6291

Hopefully they won't get mad at us for hotlinking... if someone wants to translate some of the description, you will get a gold star from me. I'll edit the pinyin / characters for all the names later on.

http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/01.jpg
矮脚乌龙 (aǐ jiǎo wū lóng)

http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/02.jpg
白鸡冠 (bái jī guān)

http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/03.jpg
白牡丹 ([wuyi] bái mǔ dān)

http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/04.jpg
白瑞香 (bái ruì xiāng)

http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/05.jpg
半天夭 (bàn tiān yāo)

http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/06.jpg
北斗 (běi dǒu)

http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/07.jpg
大红袍 (dà hóng páo)

http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/08.jpg


http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/09.jpg
武夷金观 (wǔ yí jin (gui/guan?) ??)

http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/10.jpg
金锁匙 (jīn suǒ chí)

http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/11.jpg
肉桂 (ròu guì)

http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/12.jpg
石x x (shí x x)

http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/13.jpg
水金龟 (shuǐ jīn guī)

http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/14.jpg
福建水仙 (fújiàn shuǐ xiān)

http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/15.jpg
铁罗汉 (tiě luó hàn)

http://www.sanzui.com/tea/img/yan/16.jpg
武夷菜茶 (wǔ yí cài chá)

Re: Learning leaf shapes

I think those links are dead - maybe this thread is the replacement?
http://www.sanzui.com/bbs/thread-68010-1-1.html