However, notwithstanding its local status, this particular plant is listed on CITES as an Appendix 1 and 2 species, which means that its trade is prohibited and the import or export of such plants is subject to the obtainment of certain certificates and permits. plants that are at risk of becoming endangered. This succulent does not qualify for Conservation Dependent (species which are the focus of continuing conservation programmes), but maybe is closer to qualifying for Vulnerable, i.e. This means that after the species had been evaluated, it failed to meet the criteria for Critically Endangered (CE), Endangered (E), or Vulnerable (V). Pachypodium namaquanum is listed as a Lower Risk (LR) and Near Threatened (NT) species according to the Southern African Plant Red Data List (Golding 2002). Plants are extremely slow growing, around 0.5-1.5 cm per year, and can attain an age of one hundred years or more. Seeds normally ripen from September to December. Fruits are pale brown and split to release the wind-dispersed seeds which are about 4 mm long and are attached to a tuft of whitish hairs that act as parachutes. Short, soft and grey hairs densely cover the fruit.

The fruits are horn-like, with twin pencil-thin tapering capsules of up to 50 mm long that are joined at the base. They are red on the inside and yellow-green outside. The flowers, which appear from July to September, are tubular, up to 50 mm long and 10 mm across at the mouth.

Leaves are always formed in crowded rosettes near the stem apex. The leaf margins are entire and very wavy which is another distinctive characteristic of this succulent. Leaf apexes are tapering or rounded, and the bases narrowly tapering. The leaves, which are borne in rosettes (cluster of densely spirally arranged leaves arising from a central point), are simple, obovate to oblong, green-grey, and densely velvety on both surfaces. The spines are more abundant along the top half of the plant and decrease towards the base where tubercles are more prominent. The stems are covered with warty tubercles (knob-like projections), from which spines protrude in a slightly downward direction. Plants are characteristically thickset at their bases, tapering toward the apex, which gives them an unmistakable bottle-like appearance when mature. The stems are mostly unbranched and cylindrical but may become branched from near the base and occasionally have a few shorter branches near the apex (tip). The stem height may range between 1.5 and 2.5 m, although 4 and 5 m specimens have been observed. Pachypodium namaquanum, the halfmens (half plant, half human), is a succulent plant that can attain a tree-like appearance when fully grown.

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