The plant is variegated green and yellow, but often 'sports' branches with burgundy and pink or crimson variegation. These branches can be removed and perpetuated by rooting. The common name, chicken gizzard, derives from the obcordate leaves with the dark variegation. ("Iresine", A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, American Horticultural Society, C. Brickell and J.D. Zuk ed. 1997)

William Jackson Hooker named Iresine herbstii [i re si' ne herbst' ee i]. The name became official upon publication in 1864 in the Gardener's Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette. The plant had been provided by Messrs. Herbst and Stenger, one presumes either nurserymen or collectors. (w3TROPICOS Nomenclatural Data Base, Missouri Botanical Garden)

The Gardener's Chronicle was founded in 1841 by John Lindley, Joseph Paxton, and others who felt the need for a quality horticultural magazine to list and provide horticultural information for all the new plants entering the European market. Lindley was especially involved in organizing and classifying the hundreds of new orchids earning him the title of the "father of modern orchidology".

1841 was a turning point year for both Hooker and Lindley. The men were up for the position of Director of the gardens at Kew. Hooker, fourteen years senior, was appointed and Lindley became editor for the Chronicle. Hooker and Lindley remained friends and Hooker even instituted many of Lindley's ideas for the gardens. A year after publication of the name Iresine herbstii the world lost two great men. Within months of each other both Hooker and Lindley were dead. (A History of the Orchid, Merle A. Reinikka, Timber Press, 1995)