Hoodia flava (N.E.Br.) Plowes

Shrub with 3-many stems, up to 0.5 m tall and 0.3 m broad but mostly much smaller. Stems 75-300 mm long, (20-)35-70 mm thick, erect, greyish to brownish green; tubercles fused below middle into 18-31 acute angles along stem, each tipped with a pale to dark brown weak spine 4-6 mm long. Inflorescences each with 1-3 flowers; pedicel 0.5-1.0 mm long, 0.5-1.0 mm thick; sepals 2.5-3.0 mm long, 1.0-1.5 mm broad at base, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, adpressed to corolla. Corolla 10-15 mm diam., ± rotate, lobed to halfway down; inside greenish yellow sometimes with brown tips to lobes or wholly brown, minutely papillate (papillae rounded with fine apical bristle) to smooth; tube <1 mm deep, united part of corolla flat to slightly saucer-shaped with distinct thickening around base of gynostegium which gives rise to tube; lobes 2.5-4.0 mm long, 3.5-5.0 mm broad at base, spreading, broadly ovate-deltate, acuminate. Corona 2-3 mm tall, 5-6 mm broad, slightly translucent yellow (occasionally faintly brownish translucent), glabrous, raised on short stipe; outer lobes 1.6-2.2 mm long, spreading, bifid below middle into dorsiventrally flattened linear obtuse lobules (those of adjacent lobes usually connivent); inner lobes 0.5-1.0 mm long, linear, obtuse, with narrow dorsal ridge near base joined to outer lobes.

It is a tropical plant.

It is eaten fresh as a food. It is also used as an appetite suppressant.

Plants can be grown by seed. They can also be grown by cuttings.