Which labs? Or do you mean botanical specimens held in places such as the British Museum, with which they can compare with to check the species - but not propagate from - as they're long-since dead?
Seems to me the excitement in this news, which has been doing the rounds for at least a couple of weeks now, is that the oft-threatened single species Arabica has a similarly-tasting 'backup' in case of a global coffee rust pandemic.
"Stenophylla had not been seen in the wild in Sierra Leone since 1954 and anywhere since the 1980s in Ivory Coast, Davis said. A few examples were held in coffee research collections."
I think that means that there are a few labs with plants or seeds, but the discovery here is of a wild variety of the plant. Could be wrong.
Seems to me the excitement in this news, which has been doing the rounds for at least a couple of weeks now, is that the oft-threatened single species Arabica has a similarly-tasting 'backup' in case of a global coffee rust pandemic.