玉溪地区位于滇中南,辖9个县(市),其中偏北部的7个县地处滇中高原湖盆区,原先只有少量的小叶种茶树,近年才开始推广栽培大叶茶。这里是云南省的主要产粮、油、烟的基地和经济林区,所产的“云烟”是我国高档卷烟的重要原料。然而,位于南部的元江和新平两县,茶树栽培的历史比较悠久,茶树品种资源亦较丰富。从地貌上来看,这两县属于滇中湖盆南端的中山宽谷区,在峰峦起伏中有一些海拔低的隔断盆地,当地叫做“干坝子”,坝子里的气候干热,雨量稀少,热量很丰富;而在盆地四周的高海拔区,则湿润多雨,水利资源充足。哀牢山和元江,一山一水平行斜亘于元江和新平两县境内,地势高差悬殊(达二、三千米),这里也是植物区系接触的过渡地带,所以植物资源很丰富。为此,我们于1983年秋季特赴这两县考察茶树品种资源的情况。 Yuxi Prefecture is located in central and southern Yunnan, jurisdiction over nine counties (cities), of which seven in the north of the plateau is located in the Central Plains Lake Basin, originally only a small amount of leaf-planting tea, in recent years began to promote the cultivation of big leaf tea. Here is the main grain-producing, oil and tobacco base and economic forest in Yunnan Province. The “cloud and smoke” produced is an important raw material for high-end cigarettes in China. However, the tea plantations in the two counties of the Yuanjiang and Xinping counties in the south have a long history and rich resources of tea tree species. Geomorphically, these two counties belong to the Zhongshan Kuanghu District at the southern tip of the Central Yunnan Basin. There are some low-lying cutoff basins in the ups and downs. The area is called “dry bazi.” The climate in the Bazi is dry and hot with few rainfall and heat Very rich; and in the high-altitude area around the basin, it is humid and rainy, adequate water resources. Ailao Mountain and Yuanjiang, a mountain level parallel to Oblique River in the Yuanjiang and Xinping counties within the terrain, high disparities (up to two or three kilometers), here is also a transition zone of flora contact, so the plant resources are plentiful. For this reason, we visited the two counties in the autumn of 1983 to examine the status of tea tree resources.