A group of varieties, not one variety
Catimor
Not one variety but a group of many, all descended from crosses of the rust-resistant Timor Hybrid with the compact Caturra. They share a parentage and little else: the catalogue rates their quality potential anywhere from very low to good, and several have lost the rust resistance they were bred for.
In short
Catimor is a word for a parentage, not for a plant. It covers every variety selected from crosses between Caturra, a compact mutation of Bourbon, and the Timor Hybrid, a natural arabica and robusta cross that resists leaf rust. Breeding programmes in many countries made their own selections from that material, and the results are different varieties with different names.
The World Coffee Research catalogue says so in as many words: contrary to common belief, Catimor is not a distinct variety but a group of many distinct varieties with similar parentage. A bag that says only 'Catimor' has told you how the plant was bred and nothing about which plant it is.
What the breeders were trying to build
Sourced
The aim was a plant that resisted leaf rust and stayed small. Caturra supplied the stature: a compact tree can be planted far more densely than a tall one. The Timor Hybrid supplied the resistance. In 1967 breeders at a Portuguese rust research centre began crossing the two, and after early testing in Brazil the hybrids were given the name Catimor.
The timing mattered. The catalogue notes that the hybrids were ready just as leaf rust reached the Americas. Seed from the original crosses was distributed around the world, and each country selected from it over several generations to suit its own conditions.
One line, selected three times
Sourced
The clearest illustration is a line numbered T8667. In 1978 a research station at Turrialba in Costa Rica received fifth-generation seed of it from a Brazilian university, which had made the first selections; the T stands for Turrialba. Private farms in Central America selected from it further and passed seed around the region through the late 1980s.
From that one line Costa Rica 95 was selected in Costa Rica, Lempira in Honduras and Catisic in El Salvador. The catalogue credits Costa Rica 95 to the national coffee institute in one entry and to the Turrialba research station in another. The catalogue describes Lempira as highly similar to Costa Rica 95. They are close relatives with separate names, separate release histories and, as the table below shows, ratings that are close without being identical.
Elsewhere the same thing happened with different lines. Malawi's coffee research unit adopted five Catimor progenies, of which one, known as Catimor 129 or Nyika, showed some resistance to coffee berry disease and was released there in 2006. Papua New Guinea selected and released six.
Why 'Catimor' says so little about the cup
Tendency, not a guarantee
The catalogue rates each variety's quality potential at high altitude, and within this one group the ratings run from very low to good. The reputation Catimor carries among buyers, for a flatter or harsher cup, fits some members of the group and not others.
The catalogue's notes on individual lines are about soil and climate more than flavour. Several of the Central American selections are recommended for the warmest zones and for acidic soils rich in aluminium, which is to say for land where the older varieties struggle. A variety bred to stay productive on difficult ground at lower altitude will often be grown there, and coffee from such sites tends to be less prized whatever the variety. Some of the reputation belongs to where these plants are planted.
The resistance was the point, and it is going
Sourced
The table shows the group's rust ratings as the catalogue held them when read. They are not uniformly high. Costa Rica 95 has been confirmed susceptible to leaf rust in Costa Rica, and the catalogue records that Lempira has been confirmed susceptible in Honduras. IHCAFE 90 is listed as susceptible as well.
This is the expected fate of resistance that comes from a single parent. The fungus evolves, and a variety that has been planted widely for decades gives it a large target. The catalogue cautions that a rating is tied to place: resistance broken in one country may still hold in another where different races of the fungus are present.
The Colombian branch
Accounts differ
Colombia ran its own programme from a cross of Caturra with a different Timor Hybrid plant, numbered 1343. The catalogue mentions it only in passing, as the origin of the line that became Catimor 129 in Africa, and it carries no entry for the varieties Colombia itself released from that programme.
A paper by staff of Colombia's coffee research centre describes the centre's varieties as composites: mixtures of selected progenies from Caturra and Timor Hybrid 1343, grown together, a different design from the single-line selections above. Which progenies make up the releases usually named as Colombia and Castillo is set out in the centre's own bulletins, which CoffeeHQ could not open, so this page goes no further than the shared parentage and the composite design.
Names that are often confused with it
Sourced
- Sarchimor — The sister group: the same Timor Hybrid parent crossed with Villa Sarchi in place of Caturra. Also a group, not a variety.
- Timor Hybrid — The rust-resistant parent itself. A breeding plant, not something farmers were given to grow.
- Ruiru 11 — A Kenyan variety that uses Catimor lines as its mother plants, crossed by hand with a complex male parent.
- Caturra — The compact parent. Pure Bourbon ancestry, no robusta genes, and no resistance to rust.
What to do next
- Timor Hybrid — Where the resistance came from, and why it is failing in several places at once.
- Sarchimor — The parallel group, and how one of its lines became a parent of modern hybrids.
- Species and varieties — How mutations, selections, crosses and hybrids differ.
- Become a coffee expert — A structured programme from the plant and its processing to roasting, water and tasting.
How the members differ
11 varieties the catalogue places with Catimor, by what it records for each.
| Variety | Lineage as recorded | Yield potential | Quality at high altitude | Leaf rust |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T8667 | Timor Hybrid 832/1 x Caturra | High | Low | Intermediate resistance |
| Costa Rica 95 | Timor Hybrid 832/1 x Caturra | High | Low | Susceptible |
| Lempira | Timor Hybrid 832/1 x Caturra | High | Low | Intermediate resistance |
| IHCAFE 90 | Timor Hybrid 832/1 x Caturra | High | Very low | Susceptible |
| Catisic | Timor Hybrid 832/1 x Caturra | High | Very low | Intermediate resistance |
| T5175 | Timor Hybrid 832/1 x Caturra | High | Very low | Intermediate resistance |
| Anacafe 14 | (Timor Hybrid 832/1 x Caturra) x Pacamara | High | Good | Intermediate resistance |
| Oro Azteca | Timor Hybrid 832/1 x Caturra | High | Good | Intermediate resistance |
| Fronton | Timor Hybrid x Caturra | Medium | Good | Intermediate resistance |
| Kartika 1 | Timor Hybrid 832/1 x Caturra | Medium | Good | Highly resistant |
| Catimor 129 | Selection of a Catimor breeding line from Colombia (Caturra x Timor Hybrid 1343) | High | Good | Intermediate resistance |
As recorded in the World Coffee Research variety catalogue, read on 8 October 2026. Ratings are the catalogue's categories, not measurements. The catalogue covers the varieties it has been given data for; others in the same group exist.
How the Timor Hybrid's resistance was bred into arabica
One natural cross between arabica and robusta, crossed in turn with two compact Bourbon mutations, gave two groups of varieties. Each name below is a separate variety with its own ratings.
Diagram: descent as the catalogue records it
Timor Hybrid × Caturra: the Catimor group
Crosses of Timor Hybrid lines with Caturra, selected separately in different countries.
Catisic
Cross. Parentage recorded: Timor Hybrid 832/1 x Caturra
Costa Rica 95
Cross. Parentage recorded: Timor Hybrid 832/1 x Caturra
Lempira
Cross. Parentage recorded: Timor Hybrid 832/1 x Caturra
IHCAFE 90
Cross. Parentage recorded: Timor Hybrid 832/1 x Caturra
Oro Azteca
Cross. Parentage recorded: Timor Hybrid 832/1 x Caturra
Fronton
Cross. Parentage recorded: Timor Hybrid x Caturra
Catimor 129
Selection. Parentage recorded: Selection of a Catimor breeding line from Colombia (Caturra x Timor Hybrid 1343)
Anacafe 14
Cross. Parentage recorded: (Timor Hybrid 832/1 x Caturra) x Pacamara
Timor Hybrid × Villa Sarchi: the Sarchimor group
Crosses of a Timor Hybrid line with Villa Sarchi. One of them, T5296, was never recommended to farmers and was selected from again.
T5296
Cross. Parentage recorded: Timor Hybrid CIFC 832/2 x Villa Sarchi
Parainema
Selection. Parentage recorded: Selection of T5296
Cuscatleco
Selection. Parentage recorded: Selection of T5296
Marsellesa
Cross. Parentage recorded: Timor Hybrid 832/2 x Villa Sarchi CIFC 971/10
Obata (Red)
Cross. Parentage recorded: Timor Hybrid 832/2 x Villa Sarchi CIFC 971/10
IAPAR 59
Cross. Parentage recorded: Timor Hybrid 832/2 x Villa Sarchi
Limani
Cross. Parentage recorded: Timor Hybrid 832/2 x Villa Sarchi
Monte Claro
Cross. Parentage recorded: Timor Hybrid 832/2 x Villa Sarchi CIFC 971/11
What this diagram does not show
- The Colombian varieties bred from Caturra and the Timor Hybrid, which the catalogue does not carry.
- Which Timor Hybrid line each variety descends from beyond what its entry states. The entries name lines 832/1, 832/2 and 1343; the diagram does not separate them.
- Varieties bred from the Timor Hybrid with other parents, such as Catuaí, which the catalogue files as introgressed but outside both groups.
- Whether a variety's rust resistance still holds. The catalogue warns that resistance from the Timor Hybrid is breaking down.
Drawn by CoffeeHQ from the lineage statements in the World Coffee Research variety catalogue, read on 8 October 2026. Each plant is placed only under a parent its own entry names, and the words beside it are the entry's. It is not a complete family tree.
Where Catimor is documented in the atlas
Only countries CoffeeHQ has written an entry for, and only where a document it has read names Catimor there. This is not a list of everywhere it is grown.
- Vietnam. Almost all of Vietnam's arabica, on the figure in the industry association's 2019 country profile. Source: Country Coffee Profile: Vietnam (ICC-124-9).
- Indonesia. In the Gayo Highlands of Aceh, a 2025 study found arabica growing resting largely on three cultivars derived from Catimor: Gayo I, Gayo II and Gayo III. Source: Genetic diversity of cultivated Gayo Arabica Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) based on morphological and microsatellite markers.
- Guatemala. With Caturra, nearly half of all plantings on the USDA attaché's 2026 account; the report gives no share for either alone. Source: Guatemala: Coffee Annual (GT2026-0003).
- Nicaragua. Listed among the other common varieties in the USDA attaché's 2026 report, which gives no share for it. Source: Nicaragua: Coffee Annual (NU2026-0003).
- Mexico. Oro Azteca, a member of the group, was selected by Mexico's national agricultural research institute and released for Mexican production in 1995. Source: Coffee Varieties Catalog: arabica and robusta entries, with the histories of each.
- Costa Rica. Costa Rica 95, a member of the group, was selected by the Costa Rican coffee institute. The catalogue's own pages name two different selectors for it, the institute and a research centre at Turrialba, and its notes say the variety has since been confirmed susceptible to rust in Costa Rica. Source: Coffee Varieties Catalog: arabica and robusta entries, with the histories of each.
- Honduras. IHCAFE 90 and Lempira, both members of the group, were selected by the Honduran coffee institute. The catalogue's notes say both have since been confirmed susceptible to rust in Honduras. Source: Coffee Varieties Catalog: arabica and robusta entries, with the histories of each.
- Papua New Guinea. The one variety of the six in commercial use that the 2017 report describes as resistant to leaf rust, which it calls a problem in parts of the highlands. Source: Improving livelihoods of smallholder families through increased productivity of coffee-based farming systems in the highlands of PNG: final report (ASEM/2008/036, FR2017-08).
- China. Around 90 per cent of coffee plants in Pu'er and Xishuangbanna, in Yunnan, on a 2018 paper's figure, which is its citation of a work CoffeeHQ did not open. A 2025 study names the selection as Catimor 7963. Source: Using farmers' local knowledge of tree provision of ecosystem services to strengthen the emergence of coffee-agroforestry landscapes in southwest China.
- Dominican Republic. After rust returned, a 2020 study says, the coffee institute promoted replanting with the rust-tolerant group known as Catimors; 79 per cent of the growers the study interviewed said they had made the switch. That is a share of those interviewed, not of the country. Source: Fortalecimiento de la cadena de valor de café en la República Dominicana: en respuesta al cambio climático (LC/MEX/TS.2020/37).
- Jamaica. The remaining five per cent of the Clarendon estate in the same 2023 field study. One estate, not a national share. Source: Coffee Berry Borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae): Activity and Infestation in the High Mountain and Blue Mountain Regions of Jamaica.
- United States (Hawaii and Puerto Rico). Frontón, which a 2023 review names as a local selection in Puerto Rico, is a cross of the Timor Hybrid with Caturra in the World Coffee Research catalogue, which places it in this group. Source: Establishing an integrated pest management program for coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) in Hawaii and Puerto Rico coffee agroecosystems: achievements and challenges.
- Thailand. The variety recommended to growers in the north by 2001, a paper of that year says, as resistant to leaf rust; both of the protected northern names list it in their specifications. No share of the area is given. Source: Coffee Production Status and Potential of Organic Arabica Coffee in Thailand, in: The First Asian Regional Round-table on Sustainable, Organic and Speciality Coffee Production, Processing and Marketing (RAP Publication 2001).
Parent varieties
Learn it as a course
The Coffee Expert lesson Species and varieties covers this ground in order, with exercises you can do at home.