Aspalathus linearis meaning "red bush”; is a broom-like member of the Fabaceae family of plants growing in South Africa’s fynbos.
The leaves are used to make a herbal tea that is called by the names: rooibos, bush tea (especially in South Africa), or redbush tea (predominantly in Great Britain). The tea has been popular in South Africa for generations, but is now consumed in many countries worldwide. It is sometimes spelled rooibosch in accordance with the original Dutch. The tea has a taste and color somewhat similar to hibiscus tea, or an earthy flavor like yerba mate.
The generic name comes from the Greek name aspalathos for Calicotome villosa, which has very similar growth and flowers to the rooibos plant. The specific name of linearis comes from the plant’s linear rowing structure and needle-like leaves.
Fynbos; (meaning fine-leaved plants) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly winter rainfall coastal and mountainous areas with a Mediterranean climate. The fynbos ecoregion is within the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. In fields related to biogeorgraphy, fynbos is known for its exceptional degree of biodiversity and endemism, consisting about 80% (8,000 fynbos) species of the Cape floral kingdom where nearly 6,000 of them are endemic. This land has faced severe threats and still does, but due to the many economic uses conservation efforts are being made to help restore it.
Endemism is the ecological state of a species being unique to a defined geographical location, such as an island, nation, country or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. The extreme opposite of endemism is precinctive, which applies to species (and subspecific categories) that are restricted to a defined geographical area.