Coffee Tree

Where it grows

Arabica coffee originated in the highlands of southwestern Ethiopia and South Sudan, where it still grows wild beneath the forest canopy. It is now cultivated at altitude across the tropics, with Brazil, Vietnam, and Colombia leading global production. Robusta coffee (Coffea canephora) supplies the lowland market.

How to recognise it

Coffee is grown as a multi-stemmed shrub but can reach 10 metres if left unpruned. The glossy elliptical leaves emerge in horizontal pairs. Fragrant white flowers cluster at the leaf axils for only a few days, after which the green fruits (“cherries”) swell and ripen through yellow to deep red. Each cherry holds two flat-faced beans.

Uses

Beans are wet- or dry-processed to remove the fruit, then dried, roasted, ground, and brewed. Beyond the beverage, the husks and pulp are composted, and the leaves are sometimes brewed into kuti tea in Ethiopia.

Conservation

Wild Arabica is endangered: climate change is pushing the optimum growing band uphill faster than the trees can move, threatening more than half the wild range by 2050.