Three species of the Borboniae group of "Aspalathus", namely "A. angustifolia", "A. cordata" and "A. crenata", were once used as tea. These plants have simple, rigid, spine-tipped leaves, hence the common name 'stekeltee'. The earliest record of the use of "Aspalathus" as a source of tea was that of Carl Peter Thunberg, who wrote about the use of "A. cordata" as tea: "Of the leaves of "Borbonia cordata" the country people make tea" (Thunberg, July 1772, at Paarl). This anecdote is sometimes erroneously associated with rooibos tea ("Aspalathus linearis").