Devil’s claw

Harpagophytum procumbens

Pedaliaceae

A Kalahari trailer whose hooked fruit named it, and whose tuber is a bitter joint folklore — buy farmed, do not strip the desert.

Secondary tuber as a traditional joint bitter. Wild Namibian stands are conservation-sensitive — buy cultivated.

Parts used: Secondary tuber
Traditional notes: Joint folklore · Bitter digestive folklore
Habitat only: Kalahari sands of Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. A trailing desert perennial. Habitat map, not a pin.

The hook is the fruit; the drug is the tuber.
Buy cultivated. Wild stands are not a supplement aisle.
A grappling fruit in a sock is how it hitchhiked into the English name.

Safety

Active ulcer Gallstones without advice Pregnancy

Lore

The Afrikaans dubbeltjiedoring is ‘devil’s thorn.’ San and Khoekhoe use of the tuber is older than the export trade. A 1950s German interest in the bitter made it a pharmacy plant. The fruit still catches sheep. The tuber should not have to catch a market.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.