Coffee Blossom

Coffee blossom is the flower of the coffee plant Coffea arabica, a species of flowering plant in the coffee and madder family Rubiaceae. The flowers are white, 10-15 mm in diameter, and grow in axillary clusters of 2 to 9. C. arabica produces flowers three to four years after planting. Flowers opening on sunny days result in the greatest number of berries.

C. arabica is predominantly self-pollinating. The flowers last only a few days, and the berries then begin to appear. Arabica berries ripen in six to eight months.

In coffee plants, clusters of fragrant white flowers bloom simultaneously. Coffea arabica is endemic to the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia and has also been recovered from the Boma Plateau in South Sudan. It is also found on Mount Marsabit in northern Kenya, but it is unclear whether it is native there, and recent studies support it being naturalised. C. arabica is usually cultivated at an altitude between 1,200 and 1,500 m. It does best with an average temperature between 15 and 24 °C. Coffee plants are evergreen shrubs or trees that may grow 5 m tall when unpruned.

The volatile compounds of the flowers have been captured by solid phase microextraction and identified by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry.

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