Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Aspalathus linearis; photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2025-10-01

Aspalathus linearis (Burm.f.) R.Dahlgren

Rooibos-tea; Bush-Tea; Red Bush Tea; Red Tea

Fabaceae · Cape Provinces

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Aspalathus linearis, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Aspalathus linearis, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Aspalathus linearis, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Aspalathus linearis, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Aspalathus linearis, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Aspalathus linearis, photograph (c) Brian du Preez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 84 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
0.8°C
Record low -3.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
560mm
8 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
18–55DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes November to March (May to September at the habitat), read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Rooibos ( ROY-boss; Afrikaans: [ˈroːibɔs] , lit. 'red bush'), or Aspalathus linearis, is a broom-like member of the plant family Fabaceae that grows in South Africa's Fynbos biome. The leaves are used to make a caffeine-free herbal infusion that has been consumed in Southern Africa for generations. Internationally since the early 2000s, rooibos became more commonly consumed, possibly due to its earthy flavour and aroma similar to those of yerba mate or tobacco.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Rooibos", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (410 mm of 581 mm) falls in May to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 11.8 °C against a yearly mean of 16.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

581 mm in the median year at the habitat, 410 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 108 mm, driest month February at 13 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 331 mm to 1,196 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 560 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 581 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 55 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 56).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 0.8 °C, the absolute minimum -3.3 °C, 71 frost nights in 44 years, 1.6 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.9 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 3.6 °C to 10.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.1 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 51 to 56% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -54 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Aspalathus linearis through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 4.9 °C; 581 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-3.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 18–55RH 51–56%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 73 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 21–3129 / 21–3127 / 20–2923 / 18–2519 / 16–2116 / 14–1815 / 13–1716 / 14–1818 / 15–2122 / 16–2424 / 18–2727 / 19–29
Night °C15 / 14–1716 / 14–1714 / 13–1612 / 10–149 / 7–136 / 5–125 / 4–116 / 4–117 / 6–1210 / 8–1312 / 10–1514 / 12–16
Rain mm14 / 7–3513 / 5–3125 / 14–4644 / 25–9876 / 42–15797 / 54–206108 / 61–21975 / 41–16854 / 31–11931 / 18–6422 / 12–5022 / 13–40
DLI55 / 52–5649 / 46–5140 / 37–4229 / 27–3121 / 19–2318 / 16–1919 / 17–2125 / 22–2633 / 31–3543 / 40–4551 / 48–5255 / 52–56
RH %51 / 48–6051 / 48–6151 / 48–6152 / 50–6054 / 52–6155 / 53–6055 / 52–6056 / 53–6156 / 52–6253 / 51–6052 / 50–6052 / 49–60
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 73 grid cells holding the 114 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2429:3981 (-31.475, 19.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 73 distinct grid cells holding 114 of the 114 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2429:3981 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -31.50_19.375, lapse-corrected -54 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 706 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCape Provinces · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-32.733, 19.067 · in the densest population, 170 records (85% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 200 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 114 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 86 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 25 km away. 86 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 200 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Aspalathus linearis, photograph 1did not loadAspalathus linearis, photograph 2did not loadAspalathus linearis, photograph 3did not loadAspalathus linearis, photograph 4did not loadAspalathus linearis, photograph 5did not loadAspalathus linearis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (5); (c) Brian du Preez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Othonna perfoliata Othonna perfoliata Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloBabiana lineolata Babiana lineolata Narrow Bobbejaantjie Photo: CC BY, Dave RichardsonLeucospermum vestitum Leucospermum vestitum Silky-hair Pincushion Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloLeucospermum calligerum Leucospermum calligerum Arid Pincushion Photo: CC BY, mariusLeucadendron discolor Leucadendron discolor Discolor Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloBulbinella nutans Bulbinella nutans Water Catstail Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony Rebelo

Other Aspalathus 1 in the reference

Aspalathus spinosa Aspalathus spinosa Spiny Capegorse Photo: CC BY, De Waal Hugo

Names & registers

Also known as Achyronia tenuifolia; Aspalathus cognata; Aspalathus corymbosa; Aspalathus linearis subsp. linearis; Aspalathus linearis subsp. pinifolia and 8 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(Burm.f.) R.Dahlgren
Native to
Cape Provinces
Wild records
200 in range · 86 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -31.50_19.375, lapse-corrected -54 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21Wikipedia's article Rooibos, the English article of this species' Wikidata item (Q272181)
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…