6878.000 Hoodia Sweet ex Decne.

Spiny, non-rhizomatous succulent shrub with 3-many stems; up to 2 m tall and 2 m broad; stems long, erect, cylindric, fleshy, hard, grey-green to brown; tubercles deltoid, laterally flattened, joined into acute rows along the stem, each tipped with a sharp spine. Inflorescence usually arising towards the apex of the stem, glabrous, bearing 1-2 flowers opening successively; pedicels long, usually spreading; corolla rotate to campanulate, small and deeply lobed to large and flat to shallowly cupular, outside smooth, inside smooth to bristly. Fruit a follicle, erect, consisting of two horns, glabrous.

Comment: More recent phylogenetic evidence has led to the forming of a very broad concept of the genus Ceropegia including the genus Brachystelma and all known genera within the Stapeliae (Bruyns, P.V., Klak, C. & Hanáček, P., 2017). However we follow Goyder et Al. in Flora Zambesiaca 7(2), 2020 where the inclusion of the Stapeliad genera has not been accepted.

Worldwide: 13 species in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana.

Zimbabwe: 1 taxon.