Coffea arabica

Native to highland forests of Ethiopia and South Sudan, and cultivated worldwide for roughly 60 percent of global coffee production.

*Coffea arabica* is a tetraploid (2n=4x=44) species that arose from a natural hybridization between the ancestors of *Coffea canephora* and *Coffea eugenioides*. Genomic work places that founding event roughly 350,000 to 610,000 years ago and shows that arabica's plastid genome comes from eugenioides, making eugenioides the maternal parent. Wild populations occur in the forests of Ethiopia and South Sudan. Arabica is predominantly self-pollinating, and even wild populations show low genetic diversity after repeated population bottlenecks.

Cultivation began in Yemen in the 15th to 16th century, and in the 17th century plants spread along Dutch and French colonial routes, founding the Typica and Bourbon lineages. Nearly all plantation arabica descends from a handful of plants, so cultivated diversity is a small fraction of what wild populations hold. Arabica is usually grown at about 1,200 to 1,500 m and makes up around 60 percent of global coffee production.

History

Domesticated from wild Ethiopian populations. Cultivation began in Yemen in the 15th to 16th century, and the Typica and Bourbon lineages spread from the 17th century along Dutch and French colonial routes.