Are you a dieter looking for the hoodia plant? I’m afraid you quest is going to take outside of the neighborhood; you won’t find the hoodia cactus at your local garden or plant store. You also won’t find plantable hoodia seeds there to start a hoodia gordonii garden in your back yard. The fact is when it comes to the hoodia gordonii plant you are going to have to travel a long distance to get hoodia in live plant form, unless you already live in South Africa. That is because natural growing and now hoodia farming of the actual hoodia gordonii succulent plant happens in the semi-deserts of the Kalahari.

To find these elusive plants you will first need to hire yourself a plant biologist or get a local San Bushman to be your guide. Hoodia plants or (Xhoba) as the San People call it, can be difficult to identify since in the asclepiad family there are over 2,000 species of asclepiadaceae with half being of the succulent variety. Out of the succulents you will need to narrow it down to the hoodia gordonii succulent plant because that is the only succulent know to have appetite suppressant qualities. To find these hoodia plants you and your plant biologist or san guide need to transverse the large Kalahari sand basin that goes up the Orange River to Angola, then out to Zimbabwe and Namibia from east to west.

After all you effort to procure your hoodia cactus you will be disappointed to find out you can’t extract it from the ground and take it with you. Hoodia Gordonii is on the South African endangered Flora list and is strictly controlled by the government. Only hoodia planted on licensed farms can be harvested and exported out of SA. Not to be discouraged entirely, there are some certified farms planting hoodia and exporting it to be crushed into powder and capsulated into pill form. There is a limited amount of farm planted hoodia, so when it comes to choosing a particular hoodia brand, do the research and make sure it has been tested and certified first.