Tagged: taxonomy

1. 01 The plant · 10 Oct 2026 In 1911 a botanist presented the rooibos shrub as a new species In a paper read in May 1911, Rudolf Marloth described the rooibos shrub as a new species, Borbonia pinifolia, though Nicolaas Burman had named the plant in 1768.
2. 02 The place · 12 Aug 2026 Rooibos Bushes Keep Turning Up Insects Without Names Between 2020 and 2022, three leafhoppers new to science were collected on cultivated rooibos and described for the first time: Geelus dundraad, Colistra acapitatus and Colistra bucapitatus. None of the three does the plant any harm.
3. 03 The plant · 8 Apr 2026 Rooibos Has Nearly 280 Cousins, and Almost None of Them Became Tea The genus Aspalathus holds close to 280 species, nearly all found only in the Cape. Three relatives were once brewed as "stekeltee," and the historical record suggests rooibos itself is a surprisingly late arrival to the Cape teapot.