Rooibos
'red bush'), or Aspalathus linearis, is a broom-like member of the plant family Fabaceae that grows in South Africa's Fynbos biome.
Rooibos is usually grown in the Cederberg, a small mountainous area in the West Coast District of the Western Cape province of South Africa.
[19] Archaeological records suggest that Aspalathus linearis could have been used thousands of years ago, but that does not imply rooibos tea was made in precolonial times.
Apparently, rooibos tea is a traditional drink of Khoi-descended people of the Cederberg (and "poor whites").
[19] Traditionally, the local people would climb the mountains and cut the fine needle-like leaves from wild rooibos plants.
[20] It appears that both the indigenous (San and Khoikhoi) and the colonial inhabitants of rooibos-growing areas contributed to the traditional knowledge of rooibos in some way.
He simulated the traditional Chinese method of making Keemun by fermenting the tea in barrels, drawing inspiration from his Jewish family's tradition of brewing tea and herbal infusions, which were customarily prepared with a samovar [22]The major hurdle in growing rooibos commercially was that farmers could not germinate the rooibos seeds.
A medical doctor by profession and business partner to Ginsberg, Pieter le Fras Nortier,[23] ascertained that seeds require a process of scarification before they are planted in acidic, sandy soil.
As a remedy, Pieter le Fras Nortier, a district surgeon in Clanwilliam and an avid naturalist, proposed to develop a cultivated variety of rooibos to be raised on appropriately-situated land.
Nortier worked on cultivation of the rooibos species in partnership with the farmers Oloff Bergh and William Riordan and with the encouragement of Benjamin Ginsberg.
The variety developed by Nortier has become the mainstay of the rooibos industry enabling it to expand and create income and jobs for inhabitants of rooibos-growing regions.
Aspalathus linearis has a small endemic range in the wild, but horticultural techniques to maximise production have been effective at maintaining cultivation as a semi-wild crop to supply the new demands of the broadening rooibos tea industry.
A. linearis is often grouped with the honeybush (Cyclopia), another plant from the Fynbos region of Southern Africa, which is also used to make tea.
Like other members of the genus, A. linearis is considered a part of the Fynbos ecoregion in the Cape Floristic Region, whose plants often depend on fire for reproduction.
Like most other legumes, there is a symbiotic relationship between rhizoids and the underground lignotuber structure that promotes nitrogen fixation and growth.
Hawkins, Malgas, & Biénabe (2011) suggested that there are multiple ecotypes of A. linearis that have different selected methods of growth and morphology and are dependent on the environment.
[33] Wild populations can contain both sprouting and non-sprouting individuals, but cultivated rooibos are typically reseeders, not resprouters, and have higher growth rates.
In 2005, the American Herbal Products Association and a number of import companies succeeded in defeating the trademark through petitions and lawsuits.
[36] The South African Department of Trade and Industry issued final rules on 6 September 2013 that protects and restricts the use of the names "rooibos", "red bush", "rooibostee", "rooibos tea", "rooitee", and "rooibosch" in the country so that the name cannot be used for things unless they are derived from the Aspalathus linearis plant.
Any foodstuff sold as "rooibos" in the EU and several countries outside the bloc must be made by using only Aspalathus linearis leaves that are cultivated in the Cederberg region of South Africa.
[41] A 2012 South African news item cited concerns regarding the prospects of rooibos farming in the face of climate change.
[42] The use of rooibos and the expansion of its cultivation are threatening other local species of plants endemic to the area such as Protea convexa,[43] Roridula dentata[44] and P.
