According to literature, the genus was formerly very abundant and considered a problem plant by Namibian farmers. This led to an intended and strong decrease of the species starting in the 1950's until the 1970's owing to uprooting of plants by the farmers. It was not before the medicinal value of H. procumbens was widely recognised when large-scale exploitation began, at first starting on a very local basis and spreading to most of the distribution area by today. Due to rising demand the exploitation level has increased to a considerable extent.