The Kalahari Desert is the place where hoodia gordonii plants grown in a wild condition.

Kalahari desert is the place where the San people have eaten the hoodia gordonii cactus for hundred of years as an appetite suppressant and thirst quencher.

The term Kalahari desert hodia usually applies to describe hoodia gordonii from South African origin, from the Kalahari desert. However, the hoodia gordonii plants are very scarce now at the Kalahari desert and their international trade is mostly controlled by an international convention to protect endangered flora -the CITES Convention-.