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Hoodia gordonii

Flowering Plants

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Hoodia gordonii, also known as Bushman's hat, is a leafless spiny succulent plant that grows naturally in Botswana, South Africa and Namibia. It has been claimed to have therapeutic properties in folk medicine, and it became internationally known, and threatened by collectors, after a marketing campaign falsely claimed it was an appetite suppressant for weight loss. Its flowers smell like rotten meat and are pollinated mainly by flies, and the indigenous San people of the Namib desert call the plant by their own name for it.

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