Discovery of a new coffee species in Meise Botanic Garden

Professor Piet Stoffelen, a botanist at Meise Botanic Garden in Flemish Brabant, and the world's leading coffee specialist, has discovered a new coffee plant together with his team. Coffea Rizetiana is native to southwest Cameroon, but seems to have disappeared in the wild. Meise, and Bassin Martin, on the French island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean, house collections of plants that live outside their natural range. In this so-called ex-situ collection, he was able to identify the species with its characteristic large, black and very fleshy fruits.

Dr Stoffelen recently published the official description of Coffea Rizetiana in the scientific journal Adansonia. By the way, this is the ninth completely new coffee species he has discovered, out of the 111 species known worldwide. And 55 of these species have been described by scientists in the last 40 years. He says that the fact that species are disappearing before they are even spotted by scientists is a poignant example of the state of our biodiversity.

We should not expect any economic potential from this new species, but it is good that the discovery has been made. The Botanic Garden advocates for the preservation of coffee diversity, which is threatened by forest clearing, agriculture and climate change.n