Coffea liberica W.Bull ex Hiern

Small trees or large shrubs, 6-15 m tall; branches flattened to weakly angled, often rather stout, glabrous. Petiole 8-20 mm, often rather stout, glabrous; leaf blade drying thinly leathery to stiffly papery, elliptic to obovate or obovate-elliptic, 14-38 × 5.5-12(-20.5) cm, glabrous on both surfaces, base cuneate to obtuse, margins flat, apex obtuse to shortly acuminate with tip 4-10 mm; secondary veins 7-10(-13) pairs, without domatia or with glabrous to pilosulous foveolate domatia; stipules broadly triangular, 2-4.5 mm, obtuse to acute but not aristate. Inflorescences with cymes 1-3 per axil, each cyme fasciculate to subcapitate, 2-10-flowered, subsessile; bracts cupuliform, 1-3 mm; pedicels to 1 mm. Calyx glabrous; ovary portion ellipsoid-cylindrical, 1.5-3.5 mm; limb reduced or glandular-denticulate, to 0.2 mm. Corolla white, funnelform, outside glabrous; tube 4-13 mm; lobes 6-8, spatulate to lanceolate or narrowly elliptic, 8-16 mm, obtuse to rounded. Drupe red, ellipsoid, 19-21 × 15-17 mm, smooth when dry, glabrous. Fl. Jan-May, fr. presumably Aug-Nov.

A tropical plant. It suits the hot, wet, lowland tropics. It requires heavy rainfall and high temperatures. It benefits from light shade. It can grow on a range of soils, including poor soils. It can grow in temperatures between 18-28°C. It cannot tolerate frost. It grows naturally in Liberia in West Africa. It grows up to 1,200 m above sea level. In Yunnan.

The seeds make a bitter drink. They are roasted.

Plants are grown from seed. Seed breed fairly true. The seed are put in a nursery and planted out at 4 m x 4 m spacing. Trees are often not pruned. Sometimes the plants are topped at 2 m and excessive side branches removed. Usually fruit are dried on the tree and processed by dry methods. The seeds have a hard shell making it more difficult to remove than Arabican coffee. Plants can also be grown from cuttings or by grafting.