''Hoodia flava'' is a

succulent In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...

native to the

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope ( af, Provinsie Kaap die Goeie Hoop), commonly referred to as the Cape Province ( af, Kaapprovinsie) and colloquially as The Cape ( af, Die Kaap), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequen ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and to Namibia. It has a unique pattern of distribution, growing inside bushes or on gravelly slopes and hills. It is commonly known as ghaap or yellow-flowered ghaap in the

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

language.

Description

Leafless and branchless, ''H. flava'' grows as cylindrical green stems up to 6 inches in height and 2 inches in diameter, with 20-30 longitudinal ribs of mammillae, each one featuring a thin, brown spine on its crest. Yellow flowers appear in winter on the youngest parts of the plants near the top.

Cultivation

This plant should be watered during its growing season and then sparsely otherwise.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5897571 flava Flora of Southern Africa Taxa named by N. E. Brown