Erica afra explained

Erica afra[1] is a small tree, sometimes a shrub, that grows in riparian habitats and on forest edges and occurs from the Western Cape to the Drakensberg of KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho.[2] [3] The tree's flowers look like bells. The tree's national tree number is 572.[4]

Taxonomy

The etymology of the original species name caffra is related to kaffir, an ethnic slur used towards black people in Africa. At the July 2024 International Botanical Congress, a vote was held with the result that "caffra" related names will be emended to afra related ones, with the implementation of this being done at the end of July 2024.[5]

Notes and References

  1. Hundreds of racist plant names will change after historic vote by botanists . 10.1038/d41586-024-02365-x . 2024 . Callaway . Ewen . Nature . 39026072 . subscription . 8 August 2024 . 8 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240808163208/https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02365-x . live .
  2. Web site: Erica afra L. Plants of the World Online Kew Science . Plants of the World Online . 3 January 2022 . en . 3 January 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220103153651/https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:328346-1 . live .
  3. Web site: Erica caffra PlantZAfrica . pza.sanbi.org . 3 January 2022.
  4. Web site: National List Of Indigenous Trees Occuring In South Africa. Treetags. 12 August 2024. 3 June 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240603031852/https://treetags.co.za/national-list-of-indigenous-trees/. live.
  5. News: McKie . Robin . 20 July 2024 . Botanists vote to remove racist reference from plants' scientific names . 21 July 2024 . The Observer . en-GB . 0029-7712.

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