What is the Coffea genus?

Coffea is the genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae from which commercial coffee is produced. It contains over 120 described species, of which only a small number are commercially cultivated - primarily Coffea arabica, Coffea canephora (Robusta), Coffea liberica, and Coffea excelsa.

The genus is native to tropical Africa and the islands of the Indian Ocean, with the greatest diversity of wild species found in Madagascar, sub-Saharan Africa, and the highlands of Ethiopia and South Sudan - the centre of origin for Coffea arabica.

Understanding the Coffea genus matters because most of the challenges facing the coffee industry - climate adaptation, disease resistance, flavour diversity - ultimately require working with the genetic resources the genus contains. Wild Coffea species like Coffea stenophylla, Coffea charrieriana, and Coffea eugenioides are being studied as potential sources of heat tolerance, natural caffeine reduction, and new flavour profiles. The cultivated species represent a small fraction of what the genus contains.