中粒咖啡 zhong li ka fei

Coffea robusta L. Linden.

Small trees or shrubs, 4-8 m tall; branches flattened becoming subterete, glabrous. Petiole 10-20 mm, glabrous; leaf blade drying thickly papery, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, or occasionally ovate-oblong, (12-)15-30(-40) × (4.5-)6-12(-22) cm, glabrous on both surfaces, base cuneate to obtuse, margins flat or occasionally crisped-undulate, apex acuminate with tip 10-18 mm; secondary veins (8-)10-12(-17) pairs, without domatia or with glabrous foveolate domatia; stipules triangular, 6-18 mm, obtuse to acute, aristate. Inflorescences with cymes 1-3(-7) in each axil, each cyme subcapitate to fasciculate, 3-6-flowered, subsessile to pedunculate with peduncles to 7 mm; bracts cupular, 1-3 mm; pedicels to 2 mm. Calyx glabrous; ovary portion ellipsoid, 1-2 mm; limb reduced or denticulate, 0.1-0.5 mm. Corolla white to pink, funnelform, outside glabrous; tube 5-16 mm; lobes (4 or)5-7(or 8), spatulate to narrowly elliptic, 8-19 mm, obtuse to rounded. Drupe red, subglobose, 10-12 × 10-12 mm, smooth when dry, glabrous. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Oct-Dec.

Cultivated in moist, often warm tropical regions. Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, Yunnan [widespread in tropical Africa; commonly cultivated worldwide].

This species is diploid and is cultivated as "Robusta Coffee." It has been widely hybridized with several other species to produce commercial coffee plants.