Lithops localis is in Afrikaans called the Groot Karoo klipplant (Great Karoo stone plant), sometimes beesklou (cattle claw). The locals may still differentiate between plants bearing these two names and so did the scientists earlier, calling them L. localis and L. terricolor respectively. Today the two are lumped together as L. localis.

The plant is at home in the southern Karoo and a little into the northeast of the Little Karoo. L. comptonii is the only other Lithops in South Africa occurring further south than L. localis (Grenier, 2019; Frandsen, 2017; Van Jaarsveld, et al, 2006; Smith, et al, 1998; Herre, 1971).