The genus name is derived from a Greek word for a sparrow or small bird, referring to a tiny seed resembling s sparrow’s beak (Jackson 1990). The Afrikaans or Dutch common name veertjie refers either to the plumose flower spikes or to the usage of the flexible stems as dusters (Pooley 1998, 2003), while another Afrikaans name juffertjie-roer-by-die-nag (maiden-stirs-by-night) and roemenaggie, which is a contraction of it, is a poetical allusion to the sprays of pale flowers that are sweetly scented at night (Smith 1966). The specific epithet tomentosa, meaning ‘dense woolly covering’, referring to the short hairs on the leaves of this species.

Struthiola is a largely southern African genus of ± 40 species, with 3 or 4 species also in tropical Africa (Peterson 2006; Manning & Goldblatt 2012). In South Africa the genus is mainly concentrated in the Greater Cape Floristic Region of the Western Cape (Manning & Goldbaltt 2012), with a few species extending to KwaZulu-Natal.

Struthiola tomentosa belongs to the group of species with 12 petaloid scales and it is distinguished from other species of the group by its tomentose branches, stems and leaves. Struthiola tomentosa is the only species in the 12-scaled group with yellow, stiff hairs surrounding the petaloid scales: in all other species the hairs are colourless or whitish.