Classifying and Naming Crops

Agronomy is the production of field crops while sustaining the soil resource and the environment. The word agronomy comes from the Greek words agros (field) and nomos (to manage). Most field crops are ultimately used for food production, but hey have other important uses. To facilitate their description, we place crops in categories based on their agronomic, industrial, and nutritional uses. An aspect of categorizing crops is naming them. All crops have a common name and a two-word scientific name.

Names:

Scientific:
Coffea spp.

English:
Coffee

Taxonomy:
Taxonomy is a system of organizing all life based on similar genetic or morphological characteristics. 

Genus:
Coffea

Family:
Rubiaceae

Order:
Gentianales

Crop Categories

Fruits
Stimulants
Food Crops
Tropical Crops

Coffee species:

There are about 10 species of coffee. The 3 most commonly used are Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica), Robusta coffee (Coffea canephora),  and Liberica coffee (Coffea liberica).

Uses:

Coffee is a stimulant. From ripe fruits the flesh of the berry is removed, this can be done manually or by machinery. The seeds are then fermented to remove the slimy layer which still covers the bean. Then the beans are washed to remove fermentation residue and dried. The green seeds are then roasted before they are used to brew coffee. There are many different ways to brew coffee: boiled, steeped, or pressured.