Devil’s Weed

Just when you thought ASU couldn’t get any more evil, their International Institute for Species Exploration discovers something like this:

Name: Coffea charrieriana

Common Name: Charrier Coffee

Family: Rubiaceae

How it made the Top 10: This is a new caffeine-free coffee from Cameroon, the first record of a caffeine-free species from Central Africa. Cameroon is a center of diversity for the genus Coffea and such wild species are potentially important in breeding programs. In this case the new species could be used for breeding of naturally decaffeinated beans.

This is the O’Douls of the natural world, and I fear for the future. The link is courtesy of the LA Times, which incorrectly identifies the home of the IISE as our own UA (repent, ye ombudsmen!).