Caesalpinia bracteata was first found by Andrew Gubb (1950–), the curator of the McGregor Museum, Kimberley (Northern Cape) on 8 July 1982 between the farms Yas and Warmbad, in the Northern Cape. It was found in the vicinity of the Orange River, South Africa’s largest river (Glen & Germishuizen 2010). Andrew collected herbarium specimens which he deposited at the McGregor Museum and a duplicate was sent to the National Herbarium in Pretoria. The next collections, 29 September 1987 and again in 1990, were those of Estelle van Hoepen (née Wasserfall), botanist from the then Botanical Research Institute. Gerrit Germishuizen, botanist from the former Botanical Research Institute, realising it was a new species, named it C. bracteata in 1991 in the botanical magazine Bothalia. The large floral bracts separating it from C. rostrata (Germishuizen 1991) from southern Namibia. Seeds were also collected by the author along the way during an excursion to Kaokoveld in June/July 2001. After consulting with one of the farm owners, Sakkie van Staden, the farm Skroef was visited on 23 July 2001, together with Tielman Haumann, where Caesalpinia bracteata was commonly encountered, and not far from the Orange River. On a subsequent expedition to Skimmelberg in southern Namibia in 2011, the farm Naros was visited, after consulting with the owner, to see if the plant also grew on the northern side of the Orange River in Namibia and, indeed, as we predicted, C. bracteata was encountered in crevices of Naros granitoid rock, representing the first record of C. bracteata for Namibia. The record further east at Pella, was collected by the ecologist Phillip Desmet.

Established by Linnaeus in 1753, Caesalpinia represents a large genus of more or less 200 species, most of which are confined to the New World (Heywood 1978). Caesalpinia honours the Italian botanist, Andreas Caesalpini (1519–1603) (Jackson 1990; Clark & Charters 2016). The species name bracteata, pertains to the large bracts protecting the flowers of C. bracteata. Many species are scrambing, bearing colourful flowers and many of which have been taken up in ornamental horticulture.

Southern Africa has 10 species of Caesalpinia of which 4 have been introduced and are invasive (Germishuizen 2001). The other 6 are indigenous to southern Africa (C. bonduc, C. bracteata, C. merxmuellerana, C. pearsonii, C. rostrata and C. rubra). The last four are confined to dry regions of Namibia. The Mauritius thorn (Caesalpinia decapetala), bird-of-paradise (C. gilliesii), C. pulcherrina and C. spinosa are invasive (Henderson 2001). Probably the best known is the bird-of-paradise (C. gilliesii), which is common in the Northern Cape.