Hermanus

From the Latin arista meaning "point, ear of grain." The leaf is invariably pointed.

Named after the genus Aster. The name Aster comes from the Ancient Greek word ἀστήρ (astḗr), meaning "star", referring to the shape of the flower head.

Gk. kentron = a spur or sharp point; -ella = diminutive; probably alluding to the small, pointed styles.

Gk. ereike = to break. The name used for a heath by Theophrastus (372–287 BCE) and Pliny the Elder. The stems are brittle and break easily (Lindsay); or possibly but less likely because of the ability of the plant to break up bladder stones (Paxton’s Botanical Dictionary).

For William Henry Harvey (1811–1866), Irish-born botanist, algologist and pioneer of South African systematic botany, colonial treasurer general of the Cape Colony, keeper of the herbarium at Trinity College, Dublin, professor of botany for the Royal Dublin Society and at Trinity College, Dublin, and Fellow of the Linnaean and Royal societies. He came to the Cape in 1834, aged 23, and stayed about four years. He wrote The Genera of South African Plants (1838), Manual of British Algae (1841), Phycologia Britannica (1846–1851), Phycologia Australica (1858–1863) and was co-author, with Dr OW Sonder of Hamburg, of the first three volumes of Flora Capensis (1860–1865). He collected along the Atlantic coast of the United States and Australia and Tasmania in the South Seas.

From the Greek orchis, testis; referring to the resemblance to the twin pseudo-bulbs of some genera.