It is estimated that there are more than 1 million tea trees in the old tea plantations, according to a press release issued by the Aministration for the Conservation of Old Tea Forests of the Jingmai Mountain in Pu'er.
Damiano, who writes for the Associated Press, says that growing your own tea plants in the garden can provide enough leaves and flower buds to keep your tea pot filled year-round.
While one ancient tree, said to date from before the time of the Mongol invader Genghis Khan 800 years ago, survived the drought, other younger trees did not.