The Coffea species
Two species carry almost all the world's trade. The others are parents, curiosities and, as the climate warms, candidates.
Coffea arabica is the species behind roughly 60 percent of the coffee traded worldwide and almost all specialty coffee.
94 varieties · 11 countries · High altitude Coffea canephora Pierre ex A. Froehner Robusta / ConilonCoffea canephora is the diploid, self-incompatible species sold as robusta (and in Brazil as conilon), supplying about 40 percent of world coffee.
8 varieties · 11 countries · Low altitude Coffea liberica W. Bull ex Hiern LibericaCoffea liberica is the third cultivated coffee species, a tall tree from the lowland forests of West and Central Africa whose group also includes excelsa.
2 varieties · 12 countries · Low altitude Coffea eugenioides S. Moore EugenioidesCoffea eugenioides is a diploid species of the East African highlands and one of the two parents of arabica, contributing the subgenome that is not shared with robusta.
6 countries · High altitude Coffea stenophylla G. Don StenophyllaCoffea stenophylla is a wild coffee of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire with narrow leaves and black fruit, cultivated and exported from Sierra Leone until the early twentieth century and then forgotten.
3 countries · Low altitude Coffea racemosa Lour. RacemosaCoffea racemosa is a small, drought-adapted, deciduous coffee of the coastal lowlands of Mozambique and north-eastern South Africa with naturally very low caffeine.
2 countries · Low altitude