Robusta / Conilon

Coffea canephora Pierre ex A. Froehner

Coffea canephora is the diploid, self-incompatible species sold as robusta (and in Brazil as conilon), supplying about 40 percent of world coffee. It grows wild across humid tropical Africa from Guinea to Uganda and is one of the two parents of arabica. Molecular studies divide it into a West African Guinean group and a Congolese group whose SG2 subgroup is cultivated robusta and SG1 the Brazilian conilon. It tolerates heat and leaf rust, yields heavily at low altitude and has about twice the caffeine of arabica. Breeding relies on clones and polyclonal seed gardens because the species cannot self-pollinate.

Rust resistant