[3][4] The flowers are five-lobed, usually somewhat more funnel- or bell-shaped than in the closely related genus Stapelia, and often striped vividly in contrasting colors or tones, some glossy, others matte and wrinkled depending on the species concerned.

a Dutch missionary, botanist, and doctor, who is reputed to have been the first European to document and collect South African Cape plants.

[5] Various species of Huernia are considered famine food by the inhabitants of Konso special woreda in southern Ethiopia.

The local inhabitants, who call the native species of this genus baqibaqa indiscriminately, eat it with prepared balls of sorghum (kurkufa); they note that baqibaqa tastes relatively good and has no unpleasant side-effects when boiled and consumed.

[8] As a result, local farmers encouraged it to grow on stone walls forming the terraces, where it does not compete with other crops.