Species Marlothia spartioides

For Hermann Wilhelm Rudolf Marloth (1855–1931), German-born South African botanist, pharmacist, explorer and plant collector. He studied pharmacy and chemistry at the universities of Berlin and Rostocka and obtained his PhD in 1883. He worked in various capacities in South Africa including professor of chemistry at (now) Stellenbosch University and botanised widely in this country and South-West Africa (now Namibia), discovering many new and rare species. He wrote many papers on phytogeography, ecology, economic botany, ethnobotany and education, his major work being the six-volume Flora of South Africa (1913–1932) and its supplement Dictionary of the Common Names of Plants (1917). He was chairman of the Mountain Club of South Africa (1901–1906).