Robusta coffee or Coffea robusta (Coffea canephora) is a descendant of several species of coffee plants in Rubiaceae, grows well at an altitude of 400-700 m, temperatures 24-30C with a dry period of 3-4 months in a row and 3-4 times rain with 2000-3000 mm per year.
C. canephora has two varieties, Coffea canephora var. robusta and Coffea canephora var. nganda. Shallow root system and grows into trees or shrubs up to 10 meters high. The flowering period is irregular and requires around 10-11 months for the fruit to ripen and produce the desired coffee beans.
Robusta coffee produces more crops and contains caffeine as much as 2.7%. This plant is more resistant to pests and leaf rust, so it requires fewer herbicides and pesticides on the plantation.
Very suitable for planting in wet tropical regions, loose soil and rich in organic matter, pH from 5.5 to 6.5 and in the shade of other trees. Reproductive branches grow upright. The fruit comes in the primary branch which grows flat and flexible to form a canopy like an umbrella.
The leaves are rounded with an pointed or blunt tip. Leaves on the stems will grow perpendicular to the intermittent arrangement, while on horizontal branches in pairs will grow in the same plane.
Robusta coffee plants start flowering at 2 years. Generally 3-4 flowers grow on the primary armpit and bloom at the beginning of the dry season to cross pollinate. The time period from flowering to fruit ready for harvest ranges from 10-11 months.
The young fruit is green, turns red when ripe and will continue to stick firmly to the stalk. Robusta productivity averages around 900-2,000 kg/ha/year and yields of around 22% or higher than Coffea arabica.
This coffee is derived from several species, especially Canephora, perhaps for that reason, the source of seed is not called a variety but a clone. Some robusta clones recommended by the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute (ICCRI) are Klon BP308, Klon BP42, Klon SA436 and Klon BP234.
Robusta has a lower price than arabica. The aroma of robusta is not as strong as arabica, but it is very thick and the caffeine content is more than twice as much. About 99% of the world coffee trade is Robusta and Arabica with a proportion of 25-30% and 70-75% market share.
TAXON
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Gentianales
Family: Rubiaceae
Subfamily: Ixoroideae
Tribe: Coffeeae
Genus: Coffea L. in Sp. Pl.: 172 (1753)
Species: Coffea canephora Pierre ex A.Froehner in Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin-Dahlem 1: 237 (1897)
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS
Coffea arabica var. stuhlmannii A.Froehner in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 25: 263 (1898)
Coffea bukobensis Zimm. in Pflanzer 4: 326 (1908)
Coffea canephora var. crassifolia Laurent ex De Wild. in Miss. Ém. Laurent 1: 333 (1906)
Coffea canephora var. gossweileri A.Chev. in Rev. Bot. Appl. Agric. Trop. 19: 339 (1939)
Coffea canephora var. hiernii Pierre ex De Wild. in Caféiers: 20 (1901)
Coffea canephora var. hinaultii Pierre ex De Wild. (1901)
Coffea canephora var. kouilouensis De Wild. (1901)
Coffea canephora var. laurentii (De Wild.) A.Chev. in Encycl. Biol. 22: t. 29 (1942)
Coffea canephora var. maclaudii (A.Chev.) A.Chev. (1942)
Coffea canephora var. muniensis Pierre ex De Wild. (1901)
Coffea canephora var. nganda Haarer in Modern Coffee Prod.: 19 (1962)
Coffea canephora var. oka A.Chev. (1942)
Coffea canephora var. oligoneura Pierre ex De Wild. (1901)
Coffea canephora var. opaca Pierre ex De Wild. in Agric. Prat. Pays Chauds 4: 117 (1904)
Coffea canephora subvar. robusta (L.Linden) A.Chev. in Encycl. Biol. 28: 191 (1947)
Coffea canephora f. sankuruensis De Wild. (1906)
Coffea canephora var. sankuruensis (De Wild.) De Wild. in Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg, Suppl. 3: 369 (1910)
Coffea canephora var. stuhlmannii (A.Froehner) A.Chev. (1942)
Coffea canephora var. trillesii De Wild. (1901)
Coffea canephora var. ugandae (Cramer) A.Chev. (1942)
Coffea canephora var. welwitschii (Pierre ex De Wild.) A.Chev. (1939)
Coffea canephora var. wildemanii Pierre ex De Wild. (1901)
Coffea laurentii De Wild. in Compt. Rend. Congr. Intern. Bot. 1: 234 (1900 publ. 1901)
Coffea maclaudii A.Chev. in Compt. Rend. Hebd. Séances Acad. Sci. 140: 1474 (1905)
Coffea quillon Wester in Philipp. Agric. Rev. 9: 121 (1916)
Coffea robusta L.Linden in Cat. Pl. Econ.: 64 (1900)
Coffea ugandae Cramer in Meded. Dept. Landb. Ned.-Indië 11: 680 (1913)
Coffea welwitschii Pierre ex De Wild. (1901)
PUBLICATIONS
Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
Akoègninou, A., van der Burg, W.J. & van der Maesen, L.J.G. (eds.) (2006). Flore Analytique du Bénin: 1-1034. Backhuys Publishers.
Baksh-Comeau, Y., Maharaj, S.S., Adams, C.D., Harris, S.A., Filer, D.L. & Hawthorne, W.D. (2016). An annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Trinidad and Tobago with analysis of vegetation types and botanical 'hotspots'. Phytotaxa 250: 1-431.
Beaman, J.H. & Anderson, C. (2004). The Plants of Mount Kinabalu 5: 1-609. Natural history publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.
Berendsohn, W.G., Gruber, A.K., Rodríguez Delcid, D. & Olmedo Galán, P. (2016). Nova Silva Cuscatlantica. Parte 3: Angiospermae - Familias R a Z y Gymnospermae. Englera 29(3): 1-356.
Brunel, J.F., Hiepo, P. & Scholz, H. (eds.) (1984). Flore Analytique du Togo Phanérogames: 1-751. GTZ, Eschborn.
Darbyshire, I., Kordofani, M., Farag, I., Candiga, R. & Pickering, H. (eds.) (2015). The Plants of Sudan and South Sudan: 1-400. Kew publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Davidse, G. & al. (eds.) (2012). Flora Mesoamericana 4(2): 1-533. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D.F.
Davis, A.P., Govaerts, R., Bridson, D.M. & Stoffelen, P. (2006). An annotated taxonomic conspectus of the genus Coffea (Rubiaceae). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 152: 465-512.
Figueiredo, E. & Smith, G.F. (2008). Plants of Angola. Strelitzia 22: 1-279. National Botanical Institute, Pretoria.
Figueiredo, E. (2007). The Rubiaceae of Cabinda (Angola). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 154: 455-495.
Gosline, G., Bidault, E., van der Burgt, X., Cahen, D., Challen, G., Condé, N., Couch, C., Couvreur, T.L.P., Dagallier, L.M.J., Darbyshire, I., Dawson, S., Doré, T.S., Goyder, D., Grall, A., Haba, P., Haba, P., Harris, D., Hind, D.J.N., Jongkind, & al. (2023). A Taxonomically-verified and Vouchered Checklist of the Vascular Plants of the Republic of Guinea. Nature, scientific data 10, Article number: 327: [1]-[12].
Govaerts, R. (1999). World Checklist of Seed Plants 3(1, 2a & 2b): 1-1532. MIM, Deurne.
Govaerts, R. (2003). World Checklist of Selected Plant Families Database in ACCESS: 1-216203. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Hammel, B.E., Grayum, M.H., Herrera, C. & Zamora, N. (eds.) (2014). Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica 7: 1-840. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.
Harris, D.J. (2002). The vascular plants of the Dzanga-Sangha Reserve, Central African Republic: 1-274. National Botanic Garden (Belgium), Meise.
Herrera, K., Lorence, D.H., Flynn, T. & Balick, M.J. (2010). Checklist of the Vascular plants of Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia with local names and uses. Allertonia 10: 1-204.
Lebrun, J.P. (1973). Énumération des plantes vasculaires du Sénégal: 1-209. Maisons Alfort: Institut d'élevage et de médecine vétérinaire des pays tropicaux.
Lejoy, J., Ndjele, M.-B. & Geerinck, D. (2010). Catalogue-flore des plantes vasculaires des districts de Kisangani et de la Tshopo (RD Congo). Taxonomania. Revue de Taxonomie et de Nomenclature Botaniques 30: 1-307.
MacKee, H.S. (1994). Catalogue des plantes introduites et cultivées en Nouvelle-Calédonie, ed. 2: 1-164. Museum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris.
Plunkett, G.M., Ranker, T.A., Sam, C. & Balick, M.J. (2022). Towards a checklist of the vascular flora of Vanuatu. Candollea 77: 105-118.
Robbrecht, E. & al. (2024). Flore d'Afrique Centrale (Zaïre - Rwanda - Burundi), Rubiaceae Tribu VIII, Coffeeae: 1-183. Jardin Botanique National de Belgique, Meise.
Sosef, M.S.M. & al. (2006). Check-list des plantes vasculaires du Gabon. Scripta Botanica Belgica 35: 1-438.
Welsh, S.L. (1998). Flora Societensis: 1-420. E.P.S. Inc. Utah.
Wu, Z., Raven, P.H. & Hong, D. (eds.) (2011). Flora of China 19: 1-884. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.
VERNACULAR NAME
Arabic: Bun, Qahwat
Assamese: Kaphi
Bengali: Kaphi
Chinese (simplified): 中果咖啡 - 中粒咖啡
Chinese (traditional): 中果咖啡
Dutch: Robusta-koffie
English: Nganda Coffee, Robusta Coffee
Finnish: Kongonkahvi
French: Caféier robusta
German: Robusta-Kaffee
Gujarati: Kophi
Hindi: काफी - कोफी Kafi, Kophi
Indonesian: Kopi Robusta
Japanese: ロブスタコーヒーノキ
Kannada: Kaaphi, Bundu, Kaaphi, Coffee
Kashmiri: Kahwa
Konkani: Kawphi
Malayalam: Kaappicceti
Manipuri: Kophi
Marathi: Kava, Kophi
Mizo: Kaw-fi
Nepali: कहुवा - काफी Kahuwa, Kaphi
Persian: Qahwa
Polish: Kawa kongijska, Kawa robusta
Portuguese: Café conilon, Café-robusta
Sinhala: රොබස්ටා කෝපි
Slovak: Kávovník mohutný
Tamil: கபி - மரகோப்பே Kapi, Maracoppe
Telugu: Kaaphii
Thai: กาแฟโรบัสตา
Tulu: Bunnu, Boonu
Ukrainian: Кава конголеська - Кава робуста - Кавове дерево конголеське
Aryo Bandoro
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