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The Coffee Plant
The coffee plant is a actually a shrub. Although it can grow to a height of over twenty feet, it is generally kept trimmed to about eight feet to make the process of picking the cherries manageable. The plants, which are almost universally handpicked, produce between one (1) and one and one half (1 & ½ ) pounds of beans annually. The plant grows more successfully in the equatorial areas of the globe, between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
Coffee plants generally become productive around the fifth year. First they produce white flowers, which give way to green berries. When a coffee tree is three or four years old, it produces its first flowers. They are creamy-white and sweet smelling. In some areas, the trees blossom all through the year with only a brief resting period. Other areas will have trees that blossom for only a short time, but they will do so all at once.
When the berries ripen, they turn a bright red and are referred to as cherries. The seeds of the cherries are the coffee beans which eventually reach our roasters and our cups.
The perennial evergreen dicotyledon belongs to the rubiacease family. It has a main vertical trunk (orthotropic) and primary, secondary and tertiary horizontal branches (plagiotropic). |
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