Coffee - Ethiopia

Coffea arabica - There are several species of plants producing beans used for brewing coffee. The species Coffea arabica, native to Ethiopia, was the first to be cultivated by humans. The wild form of the plant is now rare in Ethiopia. A Coffea arabica shrub takes an average of three years to reach maturity and to begin producing fruit. Depending on each individual shrub, a coffee plant can produce .5 to 5 kilograms of beans; these beans are the seeds of the plant’s fruit.

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The modern state of Ethiopia emerged with the ascent of Menelik II, emperor of Ethiopia from 1889 to 1913. He ceded control of Eritrea to Italy through the Treaty of Wuchale in 1889, but when Italy began violating the treaty, Menelik II repudiated the agreement and Italy declared war against Ethiopia. In a series of battles, Amba Alagi and Mekele, Ethiopia defeated Italy and a new peace was negotiated recognizing Italian claim to Eritrea and Ethiopia’s sovereignty against further Italian demands.

Oldenlandia adscensionis - Ascension Island

Sailing outbound for India in 1501, Portuguese explorer João da Nova sighted an isolated island in the mid-Atlantic and named his discovery “Ilha da Ascensão.” The abundant sea birds and turtles provided his crew with fresh food, but the barren landscape did not appeal to Da Nova and he did not claim the island for Portugal.

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Oldenlandia adscensionis - A volcano, emerging out of the Atlantic Ocean, formed Ascension about 1 million years ago. Being a young island, the soil consists mostly of clinker, a rough basaltic lava. The flora able to take root arrived by air or sea and began to evolve into unique species, but plants and animals with a limited dispersal are easy victims of extinction. Oldenlandia adscensionis and many other endemic plants became extinct through habitat loss or over grazing when goats, sheep, rabbits, and rats were introduced to the island.

Tiare Māori - Cook Islands

Located to the northeast of New Zealand, the Cook Islands consists of 15 small islands. The first recorded sighting occurred in 1595 by Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira, but it was not until 1606 when Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, a Portuguese explorer working for Spain, made landfall on the island of Rakahanga.

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Gardenia taitensis - The tiaré flower is a plant of the gardenia genera, one of hundreds of genera within the Rubiaceae family. It originated in Melanesia and Western Polynesia and is referred to as tiare Māori or tialé Māoli by the inhabitants of the Cook Islands. Having a sweet fragrance, the flower is often worn as a necklace similar in style as the Hawaiian lei or the Tahitian hei; sometimes it is worn in the hair.  The creamy white petals are arranged in a pin-wheel design with 5 to 9 lobes. It is an evergreen shrub and grows to heights ranging from 2 to 4 meters.