Karoo Hoodia

Hoodia gordonii History

Hoodia's timeline

Hoodia gordonii was discovered by col. Robert Jacob Gordon in the vicinity of the Orange river during the year 1779. Two years after col. Gordon, a Dutch officer of Scottish descent, reached the river and named it after the Prince of Orange. On his second journey to the Orange river, this time accompanied by lieut. William Patterson, he came upon this known Stapeliad.

He brought a drawing of the plant to Francis Masson, professional gardener who was sent to the Cape by the King of England to collect seed and plants for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

Masson published the drawing in 1796 under the name Stapelia gordonii in his well known work Stapeliae Novae. In 1830 the genus Hoodia was established in the second edition of the Hortus Brittannicus, a catalogue of plants cultivated in the gardens of Great Brittain, London and the species under discussion was transferred to the new genus.

The possibility exists that the plants which were described as Hoodia gordonii, were in fact specimens of the plant which is today known under the specie H. bainii. Some botanists are of opinion that Hoodia gordonii and Hoodia bainii are not the same species. Plants of the species which at this stage is known as H. gordonii occur in the North Western Cape and the southern half of South Africa.