Compilation
Aloe suprafoliata

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Name

Identification
Aloe suprafoliata Pole Evans [family ASPHODELACEAE ]
Related name
  • Aloe suprafoliata

Flora

Entry for Aloe suprafoliata [family ALOACEAE]
Herbarium
South African National Biodiversity Institute, Compton Herbarium, Cape Town (SAM)
Collection
Flora of Southern Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of South Africa, (2003) Author: Dr J.P. Roux
Names
Aloe suprafoliata [family ALOACEAE]
Information
Plants stemless or short-stemmed, 200^00 mm tall excluding inflorescence. Leaves ± 30, distichous until first or second flowering, later rosulate, 250-400 x 50-70 mm, bluish green to bluish grey, sometimes tinged purplish. Inflores­cence a simple raceme, 0.6-2.0 m tall, 2-6 per rosette; bracts spathulate, 15-20 x 6-13 mm, many-nerved. Flowers brilliant pink, 33-50 mm long; outer segments free to base, inner segments adnate to outer for 12-20 mm; pedicels 14-20 mm long, lengthening to ± 30 mm in fruit. Anthers not or hardly exserted. Ovary 5.5-9.0 x 1.5-3.0 mm, pale olive-green; style exserted 1-2 mm. Fruit not seen. Flower­ing time May to July.
Habitat
Aloe suprafoliata differs from its nearest ally, A. thorncroftii (no. 65), in the following ways: the leaves of young plants are always dis­tichous and have smooth, glaucous surfaces; the flowers of this species, although long and showy, are not as long or as conspicuous as those of A. thorncroftii.
Use
64. Aloe suprafoliata Pole Evans in Trans­actions of the Royal Society of South Africa 5: 603 (1916); Pole Evans: t. 733 (1939b); Reynolds: 115 (1940b); Reynolds: 302 (1950); Jeppe: 8 (1969); Bornman & D.S.Hardy: 157 (1972); Compton: 102 (1976); B.-E. van Wyk & G.F.Sm.: 164 (1996). Type: Swaziland, Stegi, Pole Evans '215 (PRE!).
Range
This species is found in Mpumalanga, Swaziland and KwaZulu-Natal, and usually occurs in cracks in rock or near sheer cliffs, in montane grassland or in places where the soil is absent or too thin to support other vegetation. It seems to require a humus-rich soil. Map 46.

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