Simon van der Stel, camped among copper mines in the Springbok region. The naturalist of the group was Hendrik Claudius and the discovery of the plant and drawings of it in Simon van der Stel's journal, are attributed to him. Live plants were not known in England until 1822, when James Bowie introduced the species at kew and it was named by Haworth. The species has a very wide distribution, growing in karoid veldt from Namaqualand, through to Carnarvan, Victoria West, Beaufort West, Murraysburg and as far south as Willomore. It grows in large clumps branching from the base, with dense clusters of thick, ten to sixteen angled branches, which may reach heights of up to 500 mm.
Plants do vary from district to district in height, thickness of branches and sturdiness of spines.
I have grown the plant from seed and did not find it particularly difficult. Branching from the base began when the plants were about three years old and the spine clusters were quite strong even at this early age. My husband and I saw Euphorbia stellaespina growing on hillsides between Hutchinson and Murraysburg last year' and it was quite a spectacular sight. The beautiful clumps were large and in very good condition, with masses of seed pods beginning to ripen. I would assume that the former is correct, unless there has been some taxonomical reason for the latter being used.