Botanists working in India, unaware of the African flora, used various names.
Verbesina sativa was the first name used for the taxon. The taxon Jaegeria abyssinica
was also used. De Candolle (1836) described the taxon with the name Ramtilla oleifera.
Two years later he realized that his description and Cassini’s Guizotia abyssinica Cass.
were the same and proposed a new name, Guizotia oleifera (DC). In 1905 following
the Vienna botanical congress, the name Guizotia was conserved, and in 1930 at the
Cambridge botanical congress the name Guizotia abyssinica (L. f.) Cass. was proposed
as the correct name.