Plant
The coffee plant itself: its fruit and seed, species and varieties, and how it grows.
Fruit and seed
6 entries- Fruit and seedCoffee cherry anatomyThe layers of the coffee fruit, from the outer skin to the seed, and why each one matters for processing.Source-checked
- Fruit and seedSeed anatomy and storageThe coffee seed as a living seed – embryo, endosperm and silverskin inside the parchment – and why it survives partial drying but not cold storage when dry, so coffee diversity is kept in field genebanks.Source-checked
- Fruit and seedGermination and seedlingsHow a coffee seed takes up water, weakens the endosperm in front of its root, pushes out a radicle and lifts its seed leaves above the soil – and why this takes weeks rather than days.Source-checked
- Fruit and seedFlowering and pollinationHow the coffee plant forms flower buds, why they wait for rain after a dry spell, how long a flower lasts, and how arabica pollinates itself while canephora needs pollen from another plant – and what bees add.Source-checked
- Fruit and seedFruit developmentHow a fertilised coffee flower becomes a ripe cherry – the growth phases, how long each species takes, why the fruit turns red or yellow, and when the size of the bean is decided.Source-checked
- Fruit and seedPeaberries and bean shapesMost coffee fruits hold two flat-sided seeds, but some hold one round seed (a peaberry), three seeds or two seeds locked in one shell. What causes each shape, how often it occurs and how it is sorted.Source-checked
Species and varieties
9 entries · 3 coming- Species and varietiesThe coffee genus (Coffea)Coffea is a genus of 133 known wild species in Africa, Madagascar, Asia and Australasia. Two of them make almost all the world’s coffee, and most of the rest are threatened.Source-checked
- Species and varietiesArabica varieties and their linesAlmost all Arabica grown today descends from a few seeds taken from Ethiopia to Yemen. How those seeds became Typica, Bourbon and the rust-resistant and hybrid varieties farmers plant now.Source-checked
- Species and varietiesCoffea arabicaThe species behind arabica coffee. A natural hybrid of two other coffee species, native to the highland forests of south-western Ethiopia and South Sudan, self-fertile, narrow in diversity and listed as Endangered in the wild.Source-checked
- Species and varietiesCoffea canephora (robusta)The species behind robusta coffee, about two-fifths of the world crop. A lowland African tree that cannot pollinate itself, so it is grown from clones and mixed plantings, and it holds more caffeine than arabica.Source-checked
- Species and varietiesArabica and robusta comparedHow the two commercial coffee species differ as plants, in their climate needs, in the shape of the bean and in what the seed holds, and how a laboratory tells them apart in green coffee, roast coffee and blends.Source-checked
- Species and varietiesLiberica and excelsaTwo large-fruited African coffee trees, long treated as one species. Planted in Asia after leaf rust in the late 19th century, they are now a tiny but growing crop valued for heat and drought tolerance.Source-checked
- Species and varietiesEugenioides, arabica’s other parentA wild coffee species of the East African highlands and one of the two parents of arabica, the one that passed on its plastids. In one study its seeds held about a fifth of the caffeine of canephora.Source-checked
- Species and varietiesStenophylla and other wild relativesWild coffee species beyond arabica and robusta, such as stenophylla and two East African species, carry heat tolerance and distinct flavours that breeders may need. Most wild species are threatened, and many are held in no genebank.Source-checked
- Species and varieties · comingRacemosa and zanguebariae
- Species and varieties · comingRobusta varieties and clones
- Species and varietiesEthiopian landracesEthiopia holds most of the genetic diversity of arabica coffee. What its landraces are, how they are grown, collected and bred, and why the “heirloom” label says little about them.Source-checked
- Species and varieties · comingVariety, cultivar, landrace
Genetics and breeding
4 entries · 4 coming- GeneticsPolyploidy and the arabica genomeArabica coffee carries the full chromosome sets of two species, Coffea canephora and Coffea eugenioides. This double genome explains why arabica pollinates itself, how it is inherited and why its age is hard to date.Source-checked
- GeneticsThe arabica bottleneckCultivated arabica is one of the least genetically diverse crops. How a single hybrid origin, self-pollination and a few founding plants narrowed it, and what that means for disease and breeding.Source-checked
- Genetics · comingHow coffee is bred
- GeneticsThe Timor HybridA natural cross of arabica and robusta found on the island of Timor. It carries robusta genes against coffee leaf rust and is the parent of the Catimor and Sarchimor groups of varieties.Source-checked
- GeneticsF1 hybridsFirst-generation crosses between genetically distant arabica parents, often a cultivated line and a wild Ethiopian accession. They outyield pure lines, but their seed does not breed true, so most are cloned.Source-checked
- Genetics · comingBreeding for disease resistance
- Genetics · comingDNA fingerprinting of varieties
- Genetics · comingPlant variety protection
Propagation
6 coming- Propagation · comingSeeds and seed quality
- Propagation · comingNurseries and seedlings
- Propagation · comingCuttings and grafting
- Propagation · comingSomatic embryogenesis
- Propagation · comingSeed systems
- Propagation · comingNursery diseases
How the plant works
1 entry · 4 coming- PhysiologyBranching and fruiting woodHow a coffee plant is built – one upright stem, pairs of horizontal side branches – and why its flowers and fruit form on young wood, so that the crop moves up and out every year.Source-checked
- Physiology · comingRoots
- Physiology · comingLeaves and photosynthesis
- Physiology · comingClimate needs of coffee species
- Physiology · comingLife cycle and growth stages
History
2 coming- History · comingWhere coffee comes from: legends and evidence
- History · comingThe wild coffee forests of Ethiopia
Tools
2 tools- ToolArabica lines mapA metro map of 69 Arabica varieties on eight lines, from Ethiopia and Yemen to Typica, Bourbon, Catimor, Sarchimor and the F1 hybrids. Tap a variety for its parents and traits.
- ToolCoffee species indexAll 133 accepted coffee species: where each grows wild and how threatened it is. Search a name or a country, filter by region and Red List category.