Description

Coffee berry inhabits a wide range of habitats throughout California. ‘Eve Case’ is a cultivar introduced by the Saratoga Horticultural Foundation in 1975. It is a mounding shrub with leathery, olive-green leaves. Small yellow flowers appear in mid-spring. Fruit matures from green to red to finally deep purple, reminiscent of the berry of a coffee bush. ‘Eve Case’ can tolerate sun to partial shade and a little summer water once established. A height of four to six feet is typical but ‘Eve Case’ may grow larger in ideal settings. A ten year old specimen in western San Jose (just minutes from the site of the original Saratoga Horticultural Foundation, by the way) has grown in a columnar form to four feet in mostly shade. It is entirely naturalized.