The name Pachypodium means ‘thick foot’. The name is derived from the Greek word pachy, which means ‘thick’ and podus, which means ‘foot’. The species name succulentum means ‘succulent’, referring to its swollen stem.

The genus Pachypodium belongs in the Apocynaceae family and has 23 species, of which 18 are found in Madagascar and 5 are found in the southern part of the African continent. P. succulentum has been described under different names: as P. griquense, P. tuberosum, P. tomentosum and P. jasminiflorum, but these species were revealed by L.E Codd in 1963 to be forms of P. succulentum and are now synonyms for this species.

Most of plants of the Apocynaceae family are succulent or shrub-like, have milky white sap and many are poisonous, containing alkaloids in the plant tissues.

Pachypodium succulentum can be confused with P. bispinosum when not flowering, but the flowers are different: the corolla tube and sepals are pubescent in P. succulentum and glabrous in P. bispinosum, and P. bispinosum flowers have a wider, funnel-shaped corolla tube and shorter, rounder petals only 5-7 mm long. Both P. succulentum and P. bispinosum were discovered in the Eastern Cape by Carl Thunberg in 1770. Out of all Pachypodium species, P. succulentum is the most widely distributed species.