This species was described in 2011 from south-western Kenya by Leonard Newton of Kenyatta University in Nairobi. First collected in 1991 by Michael Neumann, it wasn’t until 1999 that a second collection made by Lawrie Springate convinced Professor Newton that this was a new species. The unusual double-barrelled epithet of the species recognises both collectors but is particularly poignant as Lawrie, a close colleague and former researcher on the Flora of the Arabian Peninsula and Socotra at the Botanics, died suddenly in June of 2011 not knowing he had been honoured in this way. Lawrie was especially interested in succulent plants and this was a fitting tribute to his work.