The genus Freesia is named after F.H.T. Freese (died 1876), a German physician from Kiel and a pupil of Ecklon. The species name alba means white in Latin.

Freesia belongs in the large and very diverse Iridaceae, a family of about 65 genera and 1 800 species distributed all over the world. Africa south of the Equator is home to the greatest concentration of species, 46 genera occur here, including many well-known ornamentals, e.g. Gladiolus, Sparaxis, Tritonia, Moraea, Watsonia, Ixia, Crocosmia, Babiana, Dierama and of course, Freesia.

Freesia is endemic to southern Africa and consists of 16 species: Freesia alba, F. andersoniae, F. caryophyllacea, F. corymbosa, F. fergusoniae, F. fucata, F. grandiflora, F. laxa, F. leichtlinii, F. occidentalis, F. refracta, F. sparrmannii, F. speciosa, F. verrucosa and F. viridis. The genus was revised in 1935 by N.E. Brown and again in 1982 by Goldblatt. Goldblatt reduced the 19 species defined by Brown to 11, then the genus Anomatheca was sunk into Freesia and then Goldblatt & Manning discovered Freesia fucata in the Renosterveld in 2001.

Freesia has a rather complicated and confusing history with lots of wrong names, misapplication of names and synonymy - for the full version see the 1982 revision by Peter Goldblatt. The first two species that were cultivated in Europe in 1766, were both placed in different genera viz. F. corymbosa was thought to be a Gladiolus and F. caryophyllacea was thought to be an Ixia. Freesia refracta arrived there in 1795 and was also thought to be a Gladiolus. Freesia sparrmannii was collected in 1770 and described in 1814, also as a Gladiolus, and the fifth species was called Gladiolus xanthospila but this one has never been related to any wild plant and is thought to be a form of F. caryophyllacea.

Ecklon, Zeyher and Drege, all active in the early 1800s, sent back several species including F. sparrmannii, F. refracta, F. corymbosa, F. leichtlinii and F. andersoniae. It was only in 1866 that Freesia was described as a distinct genus. Freesia alba was first described in 1878 by G.L.Meyer, and became well known in Europe, as F. refracta var. alba. Gumbleton recognized Freesia alba as a distinct species in 1896.

None of the early collections were widely grown, nor were they used in breeding experiments, furthermore they probably did not persist in cultivation and were grown only by collectors. It was only when yellow-flowered plants of F. leichtlinii were discovered in 1874 that Freesia entered the world of horticulture. Max Leichtlin found them in the Botanic Gardens at Padua - how they got there is a mystery, but he spotted them, grew them and distributed material widely. F. leichtlinii was repeatedly figured in horticultural journals in the following decade and was evidently a popular ornamental pot plant available in the nursery trade.

There is no record of how it got there, but Freesia alba first appeared in the English nursery trade in 1878 and quickly spread to Europe and North America. It appears to have caused quite a sensation, and appeared in almost every horticultural publication of note in both Europe and America in the years following its introduction. Breeding began immediately after F. alba appeared on the market and continues to this day.

Today there are hundreds of hybrids and varieties in any imaginable colour. Most of these hybrids are derived from F. alba, F. leichtlinii, a rose pink form of F. corymbosa known then as F. armstrongii, and a deep yellow form of F. corymbosa known then as F. aurea.