Raspalia trigyna has often been called 'South Africa 's rarest shrub' and has been thought extinct a number of times, only to be 'resurrected' again by the discovery of a few more individuals. Raspalia trigyna was first discovered in 1884 near Murchinson in KwaZulu-Natal and in 1900, Thomas Robertson Sim, District Forest Officer in charge of the conservation of forests of the Eastern Cape, wrote that R. trigyna is abundant along streams above Magwa Gorge near Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape.

The species was not seen again until a single plant was discovered in the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve in 1965. It appeared that over the years, habitat loss to sugarcane and urban development in southern KwaZulu-Natal, forestry, tea plantations and excessive burning of grasslands in the Eastern Cape, but also possibly a natural decline due to reproductive failure, have decreased the population of Raspalia trigyna to critically low numbers. A number of enthusiastic amateur botanists from the Port Edward area kept a lookout for more individuals for many years, but none was ever found and in 1988 the only known plant of R. trigyna died. During August of that same year, peak flowering time for R. trigyna, an expedition was organized to search the Pondoland region for any other surviving individuals. Again, a single plant was found near Magwa Falls. Cuttings were grown from this plant and introduced into the two main reserves protecting the flora of the Pondoland region, Umtamvuna and Mkambati. In 1995, however, it was discovered that the single wild plant at Magwa Falls had also died, and R. trigyna was again considered extinct!

However, in August of 1996, two living plants were found, overlooked for many years, above a little stream in the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve. These plants remained the only known wild individuals of Raspalia trigyna for many years until one other plant was found at Mkambati in 1999. Although alive, R. trigyna remained on the brink of extinction. The few isolated, old individuals that remained are incapable of producing offspring because of this species' reliance on cross pollination. Individuals grown from cuttings and introduced into Umtamvuna and Mkambati failed to remedy the situation. It was only a matter of time before these last plants also died.

Therefore the discovery of a small, but healthy population of mature individuals as well as seedlings near the Mkambati Nature Reserve in 2001 brought great excitement and hope for the future survival of South Africa's rarest shrub. However, because of the very small numbers of individuals remaining in the wild, Raspalia trigyna remains in severe danger of extinction, and has been listed as Critically Endangered on the national Red List of threatened plants of South Africa.

A breeding programme to grow more individuals from seeds and cuttings from the healthy population is in place, and plants are being reintroduced into suitable habitat in the Pondoland region.