Wild Coffee: Roasted by ArtisTree Plantopinions experts or not?

Wild Coffee is a wonderful native shrub for Florida landscapes, but you don’t see it nearly as often as the more ubiquitous croton or ixora. Might be because it’s not as dense or colorful. Regardless, it’s ideal for areas where you want some stand-alone greenery or need “connective greenery” to integrate different specimens together. ArtisTree Plantopinions experts get together for a little coffee talk.

Joe Mantkowski, ArtisTree VP Landscape Design:

I use Wild Coffee most often as a hedge, along a foundation or on the sides of a home or building. It’s a great native evergreen and does well planted in shade or part shade to keep its foliage darker. (If planted in full sun, the leaves will lighten up.) The foliage is what makes it so distinctive — grooved leaves that are shiny and green. Wild Coffee is usually maintained at about four feet tall and wide, although some sources say five feet or more. Birds and butterflies love the fruit of this plant, which resembles true coffee beans. If you like, you can roast them and make a non-caffeinated, coffee-like drink. Take caution, though, as it may cause headaches according to some reports. It’s also susceptible to cold/frost.

Clinton Lak, ArtisTree Landscape Designer:

Wild Coffee is a unique native plant with a botanical name that’s entertaining in itself: Psychotria nervosa. There’s a cultivar named Little Psycho, too. I often recommend Wild Coffee for its tropical foliage and how it can enhance a wide array of spaces in shade or filtered sun. It works very well in areas around the bases of tree hammocks where a mid-tier tropical is desired. Keep in mind they’re aggressive growers during the summer months/rainy season, which is viewed as a downfall by some. But you just have to maintain them, that’s all. Pair with Pink Muhly Grass or Red Tip Cocoplum in your Florida Friendly garden and you’re sure to get compliments.

Chris Culp, ArtisTree Landscape Designer:

Native Wild Coffee is one of our lesser-known Florida native plants, but once people see it, they wish they had heard of it sooner. It has a nice shiny leaf, white flowers and red berries.  I like to complement the textured foliage with the native American Beautyberry, which has clusters of purple berries. A combination like this attracts birds big time. Wild Coffee thrives in filtered sun applications and is relatively salt and drought tolerant. The only downside I can think of is that it can be susceptible to cold and deer damage.

Brian Clouser, ArtisTree Landscape Designer:

I have nothing against Wild Coffee; I just haven’t used it much. It does well in shade and tolerates salt while still being a manageable shrub. There are many other plants that can provide more color and flowers, but Wild Coffee is very good used as a base plant to make those color specimens pop. I’ve seen it used as an understory shrub under a canopy where it looks really nice. Also, the shiny leaf gives it a tropical look that goes well with palms. ArtisTree has used Wild Coffee for beach jobs where we needed to provide approved native plants that can tolerate shade.

Elisabeth Owen, ArtisTree Landscape Designer:

Wild Coffee is one of the best wildlife attractor shrubs we have, with small white flowers attracting spring butterflies and the birds loving the red berries produced in the summer. This is a great shade option, with the plant being happiest in partial to full shade. It’s important to have adequate bed space for this plant, however, as it grows 5-8’ tall (although you’ll see it maintained shorter). Dark-green glossy leaves have deep grooves, making them stand out as a pretty backdrop to more colorful foliage or blooming shrubs. I’ve used the dwarf cultivar on Siesta Key where no irrigation was present in the landscape, as these shrubs are fairly tolerant of a wide variety of soils and are drought tolerant once established. Being a zone 10 plant, Wild Coffee is fairly cold tender but bounces back well after mild freezes.

Conan Michel, ArtisTree Landscape Operations Manager:

I like Wild Coffee. It’s a native evergreen shrub that I’ve seen maintained anywhere from three feet tall up to a natural 10 feet. What I like most are the red berries that are a natural food source for our Florida wildlife. Wild Coffee prefers shade although it does well in filtered sun. It’s most often used as a foundation or border plant, although I’ve seen it installed as a mass planting because it tolerates our relatively poor native soil well.

ArtisTree “Plantopinions” is a roundtable debate between ArtisTree experts on the virtues of various plant specimens. Sometimes there’s consensus and sometimes not. In the end, you are the judge.

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Category News, Shrubs