[2][3] The species have leaves with parallel veins, strongly reminiscent of monocots, in a rosette and compounded inflorescences may be compact or loosely composed racemes, panicles or corymbs.

Remarkable for species in the daisy family, each flower head contains just one, bisexual, mauve, pink or white disc floret within a sheath consisting of just two large involucral bracts.

[3] The species of Corymbium are monoecious, stemless, perennial, herbaceous plants of 5–60 cm (2.0–23.6 in) high, that grow in tufts and look like a monocotyledon as long as they are not flowering.

The plants have a fibrous rhizome that is covered the persisting bases of old leaves and long, soft, silky hairs.

The leaves may have prominent or more or less obscured parallel veins, and the leaf surfaces may be hairless, or carry long soft or coarse hairs.

The florets have a 5-merous star-symmetrical trumpet-shaped corolla consisting of a short tube near the base and five longer, spreading, oblong to line-shaped lobes at the top, and all contain both male and female parts.

In the center of the corolla are five stamens with free filaments and line-shaped anthers fused into a tube, through which the style grows when the floret opens.

The dry, indehiscent, one-seeded fruits called cypselae, are line-shaped to elliptic, flattened in cross-section, and covered in long soft or coarse hairs.

[4] In 1680, Polish merchant, artist and naturalist Jacobus Breynius was the first to mention a species of plampers, describing it as Bupleuro affinis planta umbellifera folius liratis, longissimis [hare's-ear related to an umbelliferous plant with the longest lire-shaped leaves] (currently C. glabrum).

In 1696, the early English botanist Leonard Plukenet illustrated both C. glabrum and C. africanum in his book Almagestum Botanicum.

In 1836, Augustin Pyramus de Candolle described for the first time C. congestum, C. cymosum and C. luteum (now C. africanum subsp.

Danish botanist Christian Friedrich Ecklon mentions but does not describe the name C. hirsutum in 1836 (now C. villosum) in De Candolle's publication.

The Irish botanist William Henry Harvey distinguished in 1865 seven species and three varieties, among which the newly introduced names C. latifolium (C. glabrum subsp.

Frans M. Weitz, in his 1989 Revision of the genus Corymbium (Asteraceae), recognizes nine species, two subspecies and six varieties, including the new taxa C. elsiae and C. laxum subsp.

[4] The name Corymbium has been derived from the Ancient Greek κόρυμβος (kórumbos), meaning a cluster, which refers to the conflorescence, which in some of the species looks like a corymb.

[6] The common name in Afrikaans, heuningbossie (honey bush), is a reference to the copious production of nectar of the flowers.

[4] Linnaeus included Corymbium in a group he called Syngenesia Monogamia with Impatiens, Jasione, Lobelia and Viola, because these share an unusual morphology of the fower heads and flowers.

In 1818, Henri Cassini placed Corymbium in the Vernonieae, which was accepted by later authors including Lessing, De Candolle, Harvey, Bentham, Hoffmann, S.B.

It occurred to Bentham however, that Corymbium has a distinct, particularly long, cylindrical ovary that is densely set with rough hairs, and also has very short style branches.

Chemical analysis showed that Corymbium contains so-called macrolide diterpenes, but lacks on the other hand sesquiterpene lactones, which are characteristic for the Vernonieae.

They reach the Cedarberg in the north, the Cape Peninsula in the west, and as far as Grahamstown in the east, but do not occur in the Knysna forest.