Food Plants International - Plant Fact Sheets Coffea canephora - Coffee (Robusta)

Edible Portion: Seeds - Drink, Fruit, Spice

A larger tree than Arabica coffee. It is an evergreen shrub. It grows to 10 m tall and has thicker, larger leaves. It is shallow rooted with most feeding in the top 12 cm of soil. In heavy shade, trees have a more developed trunk. The leaves are 15-30 cm long by 5-15 cm wide, and rounded at the base, with wavy edges. The midrib is prominent underneath the leaf. There are 8-13 pairs of side veins. The leaf stalk is stout and 1-2 cm long. The flower clusters arise in the axils of leaves on sideways growing, fruiting branches. Normally only 3-4 buds develop in each leaf axils and 2-4 flowers develop on each flower stalk. The flowers are white and have a scent. The flowers have almost no stalk. The fruit are round and 0.8-1.5 cm long by 1.2 cm wide. The fruit are green, but turn red when ripe. They turn black and remain on the tree till harvest. 20-40 fruit can develop at each node. The seed are 7-9 mm long, and flattened on the surface which is pressed together.