Madine Swart
Pictures provided
T
he common names of plants are
shaped through time and general use
– history and tradition speak to us
through them. As these names are
neither standardised nor scientific, they differ
from region to region and are often shrouded
in controversy. The lifework of the late Christo
Albertyn Smith was edited by E. Percy Philips
and Estelle van Hoepen, and published in
1966 as The Common Names of South African
Plants. At that time it was stated that thousands of common names were not yet recorded and many hundreds may already have
been permanently lost.
South African common names for plants are
narratives of relationships between farmers
and the plants they either tried to tame/
domesticate or used as grazing for their animals. The names describe how farmers made
connections between plants and their livestock, and this is how a unique “language of
the veld” was created. The first systematic record of Cape vernacular names of native plants
was during the period of governorship by Simon van der Stel (1679-99), most probably by
die Governor’s gardener and botanist, Hendrik
Barend Oldenland. The wealth of plant lore
from the Bushmen and Khoikhoi had a significant influence on vernacular plant nomencla-