The growth process from Coffee Tree to Coffee Bean

Coffee tree, a perennial evergreen shrub or small tree of Rubiaceae, is a horticultural perennial cash crop with the characteristics of fast growth, high yield, high value and wide market. Wild coffee trees can grow to a height of 5 to 10 meters, but coffee trees planted on the manor are often cut to less than 2 meters in order to increase their fruit and facilitate harvesting. Coffee tree opposite leaves are long oval, smooth leaves, the end of the branch is very long, few branches, and the flowers are white, open at the base of the petiole connecting the branch.

Chinese name coffee plant kingdom plant phylum embryonic plant subphylum angiosperm subphylum dicotyledonous plant class Gentianaceae Rubiaceae subfamily Xiandan subfamily coffee family Coffee genus

Catalogue

1 History of botany

2 morphological characteristics

3 growth habits

4Geographic distribution

5 cultivation techniques

▪ requirements

▪ condition

▪ harvesting and storage

6 varieties classification

7 medicinal value

Main components of ▪

Medical function of ▪

Pharmacokinetics of ▪

▪ toxicity and side effects

8. Identification of advantages and disadvantages

9 additional information

Editor of the history of botany

There are many legends about people discovering coffee. There is a legend that in the 13th century, there was a prince in Ethiopia who found that his camel loved to eat small oars on a bush, and he was very excited and energetic after eating it. So he picked some small berries himself.

Coffee tree

Coffee trees (11)

Taste, and finally found this refreshing coffee drink. Another legend is that one day in 500 BC, an Ethiopian shepherd herded his sheep to a strange place for grazing. On a small hill, the sheep ate a kind of small red fruit on a small tree. after returning in the evening, the sheep were unusual in the fence, not as peaceful and docile as usual, but excited, restless, tearing and shouting, and even jumping all night long. The owner thought that the sheep had been poisoned by eating some grass and got up several times to take a closer look at the lights, but they saw the sheep in high spirits and alive. It doesn't look like poisoning pain. The next morning, the shepherd was ready to drive the sheep to another place for grazing. After opening the fence, the sheep ran desperately to the mountain with little red fruit. No matter how the shepherd whipped to stop it, when the shepherd was exhausted, he had to follow the sheep to the hill. The shepherd was very surprised to see each sheep scrambling to eat the little red fruit, so he picked some small red fruit and chewed it over and over again and found that the little red fruit was sweet with some bitterness. When the shepherd returned from grazing, the shepherd felt so excited that he couldn't sleep all night and even wanted to follow the hands of the sheep.

Coffee trees blossom

Coffee trees blossom

Dance, dance in the land of feet. The magic of the little red fruit spread quickly, and the shepherds of Ethiopia picked and chewed the little red fruit everywhere and sold it on the market. Later, this little red fruit developed into the most popular coffee drink in the world today.

Coffee fruit contains two seeds, namely coffee beans. The two beans are connected face to face with each other on one side of the plane. Each coffee bean has a thin outer film, which is called silver skin, and its outer layer is covered with a yellow outer skin, called endocarp. The whole coffee bean is wrapped in a sticky pulp to form the coffee pulp, which is soft and sweet, with the outer shell. [1]

In fact, the Arabs began to grow coffee in 525 BC, and chewing fried coffee beans became popular in the Arab region. In 890 AD, Arab merchants sold coffee beans to Yemen, and Yemenis made coffee beans into drinks for the first time. In the 15th century, coffee was introduced into Europe, Asia and soon into America. By the 18th century, coffee was widely grown in tropical and subtropical regions of the world and became one of the three major drinks in the world. Coffee ranks first among the top three beverages in annual sales, three times as much as cocoa and four times as much as tea. Although coffee has been cultivated in the world for more than 2000 years. However, coffee has been cultivated in China for only a few hundred years. In 1884, Taiwan Province began to introduce coffee. At the beginning of the 20th century, overseas Chinese brought coffee back from Malaysia to grow in Hainan Province. Later, tropical and subtropical provinces in the south began to grow plant coffee one after another. Although the cultivation time is short, the coffee from Hainan and Yunnan provinces in China has excellent quality and unique charm, so it enjoys a high reputation in the world. After some foreign businessmen buy it at a low price, it is processed and sold to the international market. It has become an expensive world-class drink, especially the small-grain coffee grown in Yunnan Province. Because of the large temperature difference between day and night in Yunnan, it is conducive to the accumulation of substances in it. So it tastes strong but not bitter, fragrant but not strong, oily and fruity, so it is praised as "the best quality coffee in the world" by coffee merchants at home and abroad. [2]

Morphological feature editing

Coffee fruit

Coffee fruit

Coffee tree is a shrub or small tree of Rubiaceae; leaves are opposite, leathery, long ovate; every March, the branches will appear white flowers, petals spirally arranged, the heart of the flowers jump around the petals, take a closer look, it is really like a small windmill playing in childhood, emitting the fragrance of jasmine flowers; the fruit is oval, berry, crimson, containing two seeds, that is, we are familiar with coffee beans. The first flowering period of the white flower red fruit coffee tree is about three years old. the five-petal tube-shaped white flowers are filled with a faint fragrance of jasmine and the inflorescences are arranged in dense clusters.

Flowers wither after two or three days of blooming and begin to bear fruit after a few months. The fruit is a drupe with a diameter of about 1.5cm. It turns green at first, then turns yellow gradually, and turns red when ripe. It is very similar to cherries, so it is called cherry coffee (Coffee Cherry). It can be harvested at this time.

Coffee tree

Coffee tree

The ripe coffee berries look like cherries and are bright red with sweet flesh and contain a pair of seeds, namely coffee beans (Coffee Beans). Coffee varieties can be divided into small-grain, medium-grain and large-grain species, the former contains low caffeine content and strong flavor, while the latter two have high caffeine content but poor flavor. Coffee sold in the world is generally made of small and medium seeds in different proportions, usually 70% of medium seeds, mainly caffeine, and 30% of small seeds, mainly for their aroma. Each coffee variety generally has a few to a dozen variants. Coffee is more resistant to shade and cold, but not resistant to light, drought and disease. Coffee contains nine kinds of nutrients, such as caffeine, protein, crude fat, crude fiber and sucrose. As a beverage, coffee is not only mellow and delicious, slightly bitter and sweet, but also can excite nerves and dispel fatigue. In medicine, caffeine can be used as an anesthetic, stimulant, diuretic and cardiotonic, as well as to help digestion and promote metabolism. The pulp of coffee is rich in sugar and can be used to make sugar and alcohol. Coffee flowers contain essential oils that can be used to extract high-grade spices. [2]