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Coffea liberica
Also called Excelsa Coffee, Liberica Coffee
In Singapore: Liberian Coffee, Liberica Coffee (Naturalised in Singapore)
Coffea liberica is a tall tropical tree grown for its coffee beans, a less common species than Arabica or Robusta, and it needs warm, humid, wet tropical conditions to thrive.
Coffea liberica, commonly known as Liberian coffee, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae from which coffee is produced. It is native to western and central Africa (from Liberia to Uganda and Angola), and has become naturalised in areas including Colombia, Venezuela, the Philippines, Sumatra, Borneo and Java.
Coffea liberica accounts for less than 1.5% of commercial coffee grown. It was first commercially cultivated in the Philippines, after it was brought to the city of Lipa in the 1740s by Spanish friars. C. liberica was the main coffee species grown in the islands during the colonial period. They were exported to Western countries where they would command prices of up to five times the prices of coffee beans from other species. During the worldwide pandemic of coffee rust in the late 19th century, C. liberica plantations in the Philippines survived longer than Arabica and Robusta plantations. But they too eventually succumbed to the disease, leading to the collapse of the coffee industry in the islands. C. liberica is locally known as kapeng barako (Spanish: café verraco). It is highly regarded and grown widely in the Philippines, though largely only for the local market. Batangas and the neighboring province of Cavite are the main producers of the Philippine varietal of liberica.
At the end of the 19th century, C.
Coffea abbayesii · Coffea affinis · Arabian coffee · Bengal coffee · Coffea brassii · Robusta coffee · Coffea charrieriana · Excelsa Coffee · Coffea kapakata · Coffea magnistipula · Inhambane Coffee · Coffea
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Coffea liberica 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.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
