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Coffea
Also called Coffees
Coffea is a genus of about 130 tropical shrubs and small trees, mainly Arabica and Robusta, grown for their seeds (coffee beans) and fragrant flowers. The key to growing them is warmth, high humidity, and frost protection, as most species need high elevations and do not tolerate freezing.
Coffea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. Coffea species are shrubs or small trees native to tropical and southern Africa and tropical Asia. The seeds of some species, called coffee beans, are roasted and ground to brew into various coffee beverages. The fruits, like the seeds, contain a large amount of caffeine, and have a distinct sweet taste.
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%.
There are over 130 species of Coffea, which is grown from seed. The two most popular are Coffea arabica (commonly known simply as "Arabica"), which accounts around 55% of the world's coffee production, and Coffea canephora (known as "Robusta"), which accounts for about 45%.
C. arabica is preferred for its sweeter taste, while C. canephora has a higher caffeine content. C. arabica has its origins in the highlands of Ethiopia and the Boma Plateau of Sudan, and came about as the result of a hybrid between C. canephora and C. eugenioides.
The caffeine in coffee beans serves as a toxic substance that protects against insects and other pests, a form of natural plant defense against herbivory. Caffeine simultaneously attracts pollinators, specifically honeybees, by creating an olfactory memory that signals bees to return to the plant's flowers. Not all Coffea species contain caffeine, and the earliest species had little or no caffeine content. Caffeine has evolved independently in multiple lineages of Coffea in Africa, perhaps in response to high pest predation in the humid environments of West-Central Africa.
Coffea abbayesii · Coffea affinis · Arabian coffee · Bengal coffee · Coffea brassii · Robusta coffee · Coffea charrieriana · Excelsa Coffee · Coffea kapakata · Liberian coffee · Coffea magnistipula · Inhambane Coffee
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Coffea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
