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Psychotria nervosa
Also called Bastard Canckerberry, Bastard Cankerberry, Wild Coffee
Psychotria nervosa, also known as Seminole balsamo or wild coffee, is a shade tolerant medium-sized shrub native to Florida as well as the West Indies and Central and South America. It produces a "small, red, ellipsoid fruit" that resembles "the true coffee bean" in shape and attract birds. Its maximum height ranges from approximately 4–10 feet.
Despite its common name of wild coffee, this species is not known to contain any caffeine. In recounting anecdotes from others, the Florida ethnobotanist, Dan Austin, reported that the use of the seeds as a coffee substitute resulted in "only bad taste and terrible headaches." A similar account reported no known usage as a coffee substitute in Jamaica and noted the morphological similarity of its seed to coffee, the more likely reason for its common name being wild coffee. Reports of DMT in this species are also unsubstantiated.
Psychotria abdita · Psychotria acutiflora · Psychotria adamsonii · Psychotria alba · Psychotria alsophila · Pink wild coffee · Psychotria atricaulis · Psychotria beddomei · Psychotria bimbiensis · Psychotria bryonicola · Psychotria camerunensis · Black bird-berry
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Psychotria nervosa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
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.
