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Coffea

Genus of flowering plants

  • 7 min read
  • 4 chapters
Coffee Flowers in Plantation of Brazil
Marcelo Corrêa · CC BY-SA 3.0

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The plant ranks as one of the world's most valuable and widely traded commodity crops and is an important export product of several countries, including those in Central and South America, the Caribbean and Africa. The coffee trade relies heavily on two of the over 120 species, Coffea arabica (commonly known simply as "Arabica"), which accounts for around 55% of the world's coffee production, and Coffea canephora (known as "Robusta"), which accounts for around 45%.

Both coffee species are vulnerable to shifts, caused by climate change, in their growing zones, which are likely to result in a decline in production in some of the most important growing regions.

Description

When grown in the tropics, coffee is a vigorous bush or small tree that usually grows to a height of 3–3.5 m (10–11+1⁄2 ft). Most commonly cultivated coffee species grow best at high elevations, but do not tolerate freezing temperatures.

The white flowers are highly scented. The trees produce edible red or purple fruits that are either epigynous berries or indehiscent drupes. The fruit is often referred to as a "coffee cherry", and it contains two seeds, called "coffee beans". Despite these terms, coffee is neither a true cherry (the fruit of certain species in the genus Prunus) nor a true bean (seeds from plants in the family Fabaceae). The fruit takes about nine months to ripen. In any coffee crop, about 5–10% of fruits contain only a single bean. Called a peaberry, it is smaller and rounder than a normal coffee bean.

The Coffea arabica tree grows fruit after three to five years, producing for an average of 50 to 60 years, though up to 100 years is possible.

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