小粒咖啡 xiao li ka fei

Small trees or large shrubs, 5-8 m tall; branches flattened to subterete, glabrous. Petiole 8-15 mm, glabrous; leaf blade drying thinly leathery, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, or occasionally ovate-lanceolate, (2-)6-14(-22) × 3.5-5(-8.5) cm, glabrous on both surfaces, base cuneate to obtuse or rarely rounded, margins occasionally crisped-undulate, apex acuminate with tip usually 10-15 mm; secondary veins 7-10(-13) pairs, without domatia or with glabrous foveolate domatia; stipules broadly triangular, 3-8(-12) mm, aristate at least on youngest branches. Inflorescences with 1 to several cymes in each axil, each cyme subcapitate to fasciculate, (1 or)2-5-flowered, sessile to pedunculate with peduncles to 4 mm; bracts cupuliform, 1-2 mm; pedicels to 2 mm. Calyx glabrous; ovary portion ellipsoid, 1-3 mm; limb truncate to undulate or denticulate, 0.2-1 mm. Corolla white, funnelform, outside glabrous; tube 5-15 mm; lobes (4 or)5(or 6), spatulate-elliptic, 9-20 mm, obtuse. Drupe red, ellipsoid to subglobose, 11-16 × 9-14 mm, when dry smooth or sometimes weakly didymous, glabrous. Fl. Mar-Jul, fr. Oct-Jan.

Cultivated in moist, usually cool tropical regions; 200-700 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [native to E Africa (Ethiopia, N Kenya, Sudan); cultivated worldwide].

This species is tetraploid and is the source of "Arabica Coffee." It has been widely hybridized with several other Coffea species to produce commercial coffee plants; flower size varies markedly among many of these.