Species
+

Coffea arabica L.

Arabian coffee, Arabian coffee, Arabica Coffee, Arabica coffee, Arabian coffee, Coffee tree, Coffee,

Climate known 67 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Coffea arabica, also known as the Arabica coffee, is a species of flowering plant in the coffee and madder family Rubiaceae. It is believed to be the first species of coffee to have been cultivated and is the dominant cultivar, representing about 60% of global production. Coffee produced from the less acidic, more bitter, and more highly caffeinated robusta bean makes up most of the remaining coffee production. The natural populations of Coffea arabica are restricted to the forests of South Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Yemen.

Text from Wikipedia, “Coffea arabica”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Coffea

Coffea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. Coffea species are shrubs or small trees native to tropical and southern Africa and tropical Asia. The seeds of some species, called coffee beans, are roasted and ground to brew into various coffee beverages. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Coffea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Rubiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya
Wild records
78 in range· 66 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Feb, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1685mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Apr 229 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Coffea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, April to June and August to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1685 mm a year, wettest April at 229 mm, driest February at 50 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 9.9 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Coffea arabica f. abyssinica A.Chev.; Coffea arabica subsp. abyssinica A.Chev.; Coffea arabica subsp. amarella A.Froehner; Coffea arabica subsp. angustifolia Cramer; Coffea arabica subsp. bourbon Rodr. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Coffea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, April to June and August to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1247 mm of 1685 mm) falls in April to June and August to November. The temperature curve is flat, 2.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1685 mm a year, wettest April at 229 mm, driest February at 50 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1685 mm a year at the habitat, 1247 mm of it April to June and August to November. Wettest month April at 229 mm, driest February at 50 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1047 mm to 2424 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 9.9 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 9.9 °C, the absolute minimum 7.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.8 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.7 °C to 16.0 °C), warmest day 25.9 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 9.9 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by the genus Coffea, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 21 °C in Jul to 26 °C in Feb; mean night from 13 °C in Jul to 15 °C in Apr. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1685 mm of rain a year, most in Apr. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 57 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 7.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°31.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)7.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 28–41RH 55–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 57 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C25 / 22–2726 / 23–2826 / 23–2824 / 22–2823 / 21–2622 / 20–2521 / 19–2422 / 19–2423 / 21–2524 / 21–2523 / 21–2624 / 21–26
Night °C13 / 10–1614 / 11–1714 / 12–1715 / 13–1815 / 12–1813 / 12–1613 / 11–1613 / 11–1613 / 11–1614 / 11–1613 / 10–1613 / 10–16
Rain mm51 / 22–8450 / 27–83118 / 78–195229 / 97–350213 / 94–330168 / 31–247138 / 26–311167 / 24–309172 / 25–268156 / 74–285142 / 47–20581 / 25–102
DLI38 / 33–4141 / 36–4340 / 37–4236 / 34–4034 / 31–3830 / 28–3428 / 25–3131 / 27–3335 / 33–3736 / 34–3935 / 32–3836 / 33–37
RH %56 / 51–6055 / 49–5858 / 53–6164 / 57–6865 / 58–6864 / 61–6865 / 60–6864 / 59–6863 / 57–6762 / 58–6561 / 55–6758 / 52–65

Each figure is the median across the 57 grid cells holding the 78 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1654:4324 (7.275, 36.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 57 distinct grid cells holding the 78 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1654:4324 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 7.50_36.250, lapse-corrected -249 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1668 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeEthiopia, Sudan, Kenya· introduced: Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Malawi, Ascension, St.Helena, Comoros, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Borneo, Lesser Sunda Is., Bismarck Archipelago, Norfolk Is., Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Easter Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Hawaii, Mexico Central, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, C. American Pacific Is., El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker7.344, 36.223 · in the densest population, 39 records (50% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 78 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 66 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 908 km away. 1166 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 78 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Coffea arabicaCoffea arabicaCoffea arabicaCoffea arabicaCoffea arabicaCoffea arabicaCoffea arabicaCoffea arabica

Photographs: (c) Conrado Pável de Oliveira, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jay Paroline, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) julianazuluaga-carrero, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Ashwin A, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Coffea arabica, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Fruit set of highland coffee increases with the diversity of pollinating bees
Alexandra‐Maria Klein, Ingolf Steffan‐Dewenter, Teja Tscharntke (2003) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
Multifunctional shade-tree management in tropical agroforestry landscapes - a review
Teja Tscharntke, Yann Clough, Shonil Bhagwat, Damayanti Buchori (2011) · Journal of Applied Ecology
Impacts of drought and temperature stress on coffee physiology and production: a review
Fábio M. DaMatta, José C. Ramalho (2006) · Brazilian Journal of Plant Physiology
A bitter cup: climate change profile of global production of Arabica and Robusta coffee
Christian Bunn, Peter Läderach, Oriana Ovalle Rivera, Dieter Kirschke (2014) · Climatic Change
Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Coffea arabica seed extract and its antibacterial activity
Vivek Dhand, L. Soumya, S. Bharadwaj, Shilpa Chakra Chidurala (2015) · Materials Science and Engineering C
Ecophysiology of coffee growth and production
Fábio M. DaMatta, Cláudio Pagotto Ronchi, Moacyr Maestri, Raimundo Santos Barros (2007) · Brazilian Journal of Plant Physiology
Effect of Roasting on the Formation of Chlorogenic Acid Lactones in Coffee
Adriana Farah, Tomas de Paulis, Luiz C. Trugo, Peter Martin (2005) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Evaluation of in vitro anti-inflammatory activity of coffee against the denaturation of protein
Sangita Chandra, Priyanka Chatterjee, Protapaditya Dey, Sanjib Bhattacharya (2012) · Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine
The Impact of Climate Change on Indigenous Arabica Coffee (Coffea arabica): Predicting Future Trends and Identifying Priorities
Aaron P. Davis, Tadesse Woldemariam Gole, Susana Baena, Justin Moat (2012) · PLoS ONE
The SOL Genomics Network. A Comparative Resource for Solanaceae Biology and Beyond
Lukas A. Mueller, Teri H. Solow, Nicolas L. Taylor, Beth Skwarecki (2005) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
An Intermediate Category of Seed Storage Behaviour?
R. H. Ellis, T. D. HONG, Ε. H. Roberts (1990) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Effects of foliar application of zinc sulfate and zinc nanoparticles in coffee (Coffea arabica L.) plants
Lorenzo Rossi, Lauren Fedenia, Hamidreza Sharifan, Xingmao Ma (2018) · Plant Physiology and Biochemistry

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 156 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.