Charrier coffee

Description

Coffea charrieriana, also known as Charrier coffee, is a species of flowering plant from the Coffea genus. It is a caffeine-free coffee plant endemic to Cameroon in Central Africa. It is the first recorded caffeine-free Coffea in Central Africa, and the second to be recorded in Africa. The first caffeine-free species was previously discovered in Kenya, named C. pseudozanguebariae. The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and a committee of taxonomists and scientists voted the C. charrieriana as one of the top 10 species described in 2008. Coffea charrieriana is classified under the Rubiaceae family and the genus of Coffea. They are currently 120 species of Coffea spread in tropical Africa and Asia, in which two species; Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora dominate worldwide coffee plant production, making up 99% of produce. This plant is endemic to West Cameroon in the Bakossi Forest Reserve. It grows in a habitat of wet rainforest on rocky slopes of an altitude of 160m and a mean elevation range of 300m. It is highly threatened by deforestation for logging and palm oil production in its vulnerable lowland forest habitat. Coffea charrieriana was discovered in 2008 and the findings were published in a paper named “A new caffeine-free coffee from Cameroon” to the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. The plant was named by authors of the paper, Piet Stoffelen and Francois Anthony in honour of Professor A. Charrier who had made significant efforts towards the coffee industry. His work included leading the coffee breeding research and collection at Institute Research for Development (IRD) for the last 30 years of the 20th century. He also held a position at the French Office of Genetic Resources (BRG) from 1988 to 1993. He is currently working as the director of research at National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA),focusing on plant genetics and breeding. As a result of collaboration from Institute of Research for Development (IRD), Biodiversity International, Paris Museum of Natural History and the French Agricultural Research Centre in 1966–1987, coffee plants from Madagascar, Comoros, Mascarene Islands, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Central Africa, Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania were collected.