The genus Hydnora is composed entirely of holoparasitic plants that attach to the root of their hosts and are restricted to Africa and southwestern Asia.

Hydnora visseri, as a holoparasitic plant, lacks chlorophyll and depends entirely on its hosts, Euphorbia gregaria or E. gummifera, for all water and nutrition.

can differentiate into haustoria (specialized organs for parasitizing the host plant), flower buds, or bifurcations of the rhizome.

[6] H. visseri can be discriminated from those taxa by its exclusive hosts Euphorbia gummifera and E. gregaria, and by having the longest tepals of any Hydnora spp.

H. visseri does not occur in the Karoo, nor a Karoo-type habitat, but is present in a region which the WWF has called the Succulent-Karoo and/or Nama-Karoo biomes.