Hoodia

Spiny succulents, small to large, with few to many stems, branching mainly from base. Stems cylindric, erect (rarely prostrate), glabrous, 25-60(-110) mm thick, covered with obtuse tubercles vertically arranged into 11-31 rows, each tubercle tipped with a weak to hard, sharp spine 3-12 mm long. Flowers 1 to many in groups, opening successively (rarely simultaneously), near apex of stem. Calyx lobes overlapping slightly at broad bases, glabrous. Corolla 8-170 mm diam., small and deeply lobed to large, flat and saucer- to shallowly cup-shaped, lobes valvate in bud, glabrous outside and inside, papillate to smooth within, each papilla ending in a hair. Corona 2-seriate, arising from staminal column, mostly glabrous; outer corona at least basally cupular, emarginate or bifid towards apex; inner corona of 5 dorsiventrally flattened lobes incumbent on backs of anthers, dorsally connected to outer lobes. Staminal column arising near base of corolla tube. Anthers 2-locular, incumbent on top of style head, subquadrate, without apical appendage; style head not produced beyond anthers, truncate-depressed at apex. Pollinia +/- horizontal, with short caudicles. Follicles terete-fusiform, slender, paired, with horns somewhat diverging, uniformly coloured, glabrous, smooth. x = 11.