Coffee is a very temperamental plant when it comes to the climate where it will survive, as such it can only produce a crop in the tropical areas between the Capricornius and Cancer tropics, circling the globe around the equator. We recently heard from a guest to the hotel that they have wild coffee where they live in Florida. We found this of interest, could coffee produce in Florida? With the changing climate, who knows if this will be possible, but for now the climate is not comfortable enough for this picky plant.

The question is still interesting, how did coffee end up in Florida? The English colonies in America imported coffee from England since the early 1700s, but they could not grow it. The British planted coffee in Jamaica and in the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua as early as 1744. The Spanish probably tried it in Florida; coffee can survive but does not prosper in low land areas. It is marvelous to find coffee in the chores of Florida like this case in Saint Lucy County and Vero Beach.

Although the plant does not really produce coffee, it is a common landscaping plant which grows better and bigger in the shade reaching 10 feet in height. It is also interesting to think that early settlers in Florida brewed a coffee substitute drink from the seeds of this plant. Colubrina elliptica is a similar plant growing in the Florida Keys and the Caribbean Basin. Colubrina cubensis is an endangered plant in Florida.