The Brunia family, Bruniaceae, consists of 12 genera and 77 species, endemic to South Africa and concentrated in the south-western Cape. The 12 genera include Audouinia, Berzelia, Brunia, Linconia, Lonchostoma, Mniothamnea, Nebelia, Pseudobaeckea, Raspalia, Staavia, Thamnea and Tittmannia. The genus Brunia is most likely named after a contemporary of Linnaeus, the apothecary, Dr Cornelis Brun, who travelled in Russia and the Levant, although it could also be in commemoration of Dr Alexander Brown, a ship’s surgeon and a collector who worked in the East Indies around 1690.

Brunia laevis forms a rounded grey looking fynbos shrub up to 1 meter tall. It re-sprouts from a fire resistant rootstock. The leaves are oblong, 3-5mm long, incurved at the ends and with minute hairs on the upper surface. It bears small cream-coloured flowers in globular heads, 15-20mm in diameter. The common name Volstruisies alludes to the fancied resemblance of the flower heads to a brood of ostrich chicks. Vaalstompie refers to the stumps that usually remain after the woody shrubs have been burned by fire. It is normally found growing in rocky sandstone and limestone slopes, usually at higher altitudes than Brunia nodiflora.