The rooibos plant, Aspalathus linearis, is a member of the legume family of plants that flourish in dry,

mountainous regions with periods of significant rainfall. The linearis description of the plant comes from its linear

growing structure, which creates long, needle-like leaves. The plant blooms in early spring with yellow-

colored flowers. Each flower produces a legume with a single seed inside that pops out when ripe and lands on

the dry ground around the plant. The early gatherers of wild rooibos discovered that ants harvested these seeds,

so they typically hunted anthills for the seeds needed to repopulate rooibos plants. Today, farmers sift the sandy

soil around the rooibos plant to gather the fresh seeds that start the new crops each spring. Rooibos plants take

about 18 months to go from seedling to harvest-ready and are typically harvested during South Africa’s

summer months.