The earliest known description of a species of fire daisy was by Carl Peter Thunberg, a Swedish naturalist who is sometimes referred to as "the father of South African botany".
He named it Arnica crenata (now Mairia crenata).
In 1833, Nees von Esenbeck erected a new genus Mairia, and took M. crenata as its type species.
The genus was accepted by many later authors such as Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1836.
William Henry Harvey in 1865 wrongly spelled the name as Mairea and extended the number of species to ten.
The genus was also recognised by George Bentham in 1873, Hoffmann in 1889, and Edwin Percy Phillips in 1959.
Robert Allen Dyer also spelled the name wrongly as Mairea in 1975.
Kåre Bremer in 1994 included fourteen species and thought that Mairia should be included in his Amellus group (subtribe Asterinae).
Guy L. Nesom and Harold E. Robinson in 2007 placed it in the primarily South-American subtribe Hinterhuberinae of the tribe Astereae.
Close examination of the species assigned to Mairia at that time, led Jürke Grau in 1971, and Nesom in 1994 to reassign the many species without leaf rosettes.
This left Mairia with only three species with leaf rosettes: M. crenata, M. coriacea and M. hirsuta.
They considered the species they reassigned to Gymnostephium and Zyrphelis as more related to Amellus, Chrysocoma, Felicia and Polyarrhena, than to the species they retained in Mairia.
This reassignment was confirmed by a comparison of homologenous genes in 2009.
Later two newly distinguished taxa were included in the genus, and one species, M. burchellii that was originally described by De Candolle, but had been reassigned to Zyrphelis by Harvey, was reinstated in Mairia by Ulrike Zinnecker-Wiegand in 1990.
In 2011, Zinnecker-Wiegand, distinguished M. petiolata as well as M. hirsuta subsp.
robusta.
The latter was raised to species level by John Manning and Peter Goldblatt in 2012, so creating M. robusta.
In 2016, Manning considered Cineraria purpurata synonymous to Mairia hirsuta, and consequently proposed the combination Mairia purpurata.

The genus was named in honour of Louis Maire, half of the South African collecting team of Mund and Maire.
The earliest known description of a species of fire daisy was by Carl Peter Thunberg, a Swedish naturalist who is sometimes referred to as "the father of South African botany". He named it Arnica crenata (now Mairia crenata). In 1833, Nees von Esenbeck erected a new genus Mairia, and took M. crenata as its type species. The genus was accepted by many later authors such as Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1836. William Henry Harvey in 1865 wrongly spelled the name as Mairea and extended the number of species to ten. The genus was also recognised by George Bentham in 1873, Hoffmann in 1889, and Edwin Percy Phillips in 1959. Robert Allen Dyer also spelled the name wrongly as Mairea in 1975. Kåre Bremer in 1994 included fourteen species and thought that Mairia should be included in his Amellus group (subtribe Asterinae). Guy L. Nesom and Harold E. Robinson in 2007 placed it in the primarily South-American subtribe Hinterhuberinae of the tribe Astereae. Close examination of the species assigned to Mairia at that time, led Jürke Grau in 1971, and Nesom in 1994 to reassign the many species without leaf rosettes. This left Mairia with only three species with leaf rosettes: M. crenata, M. coriacea and M. hirsuta. They considered the species they reassigned to Gymnostephium and Zyrphelis as more related to Amellus, Chrysocoma, Felicia and Polyarrhena, than to the species they retained in Mairia. This reassignment was confirmed by a comparison of homologenous genes in 2009. Later two newly distinguished taxa were included in the genus, and one species, M. burchellii that was originally described by De Candolle, but had been reassigned to Zyrphelis by Harvey, was reinstated in Mairia by Ulrike Zinnecker-Wiegand in 1990. In 2011, Zinnecker-Wiegand, distinguished M. petiolata as well as M. hirsuta subsp. robusta. The latter was raised to species level by John Manning and Peter Goldblatt in 2012, so creating M. robusta. In 2016, Manning considered Cineraria purpurata synonymous to Mairia hirsuta, and consequently proposed the combination Mairia purpurata.
The genus was named in honour of Louis Maire, half of the South African collecting team of Mund and Maire.
Mairia