Arabica

Coffea arabica L.

Coffea arabica is the species behind roughly 60 percent of the coffee traded worldwide and almost all specialty coffee. It is an allotetraploid (2n = 4x = 44) that arose from a single hybridisation between the ancestors of Coffea canephora and Coffea eugenioides, dated by genome analysis to between about 350,000 and 610,000 years ago, and it is largely self-pollinating. Its wild populations are confined to the montane forests of south-west Ethiopia and the Boma Plateau of South Sudan; cultivation began in Yemen and all commercial lineages outside Ethiopia descend from a handful of Yemeni plants, which is why genetic diversity in the crop is so low. The USDA germplasm system records 967 arabica accessions, almost all historical, with a single lot currently available.

Varieties here
94
Descendants
2
Countries grown
11
Traits published
5of 14

The species

This atlas's own table
Species
Arabica
Genetic group
Species
Stature
not published
Leaf tip
not published
Bean size
not published
Yield
not published
Leaf rust
not published
Coffee berry disease
not published
Nematodes
not published
Best altitude
High
Cup quality
highest of the cultivated species
Released
not published
Breeder or selector
not published
Origin
Ethiopia

Allotetraploid of C. canephora x C. eugenioides; single polyploidisation event followed by pre-domestication bottlenecks; wild/cultivar split about 30,500 years ago.

Countries grown

BrazilColombiaEthiopiaHondurasGuatemalaPeruMexicoKenyaIndonesiaIndiaChina

Germplasm accessions

  • USDA-NPGS GRIN-Globalrecord

    taxon 300141 (967 accessions, 11 active, 1 available)

  • USDA-NPGS GRIN-Globalrecord

    TARS 16302 (accession id 1075310), Coffea arabica 'Cafe (P. R.)', received 1939, MAY repository

Varieties of Arabica

94

Bred from Arabica