< Back to the Object

Edit History
Aloe variegata [family ALOACEAE]

Date Updated: 19 August 2007

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 variegata [family ALOACEAE]
Common names
A. punctata Haw.: 26 (1804); Haw.: 44 (1821). Lecto-iconotype: Pluk., Phytographia 129.1 (1691). A. variegata L. var. haworthii A.Berger: 190 (1908). Type: Eastern Cape, Sheldon, Schonland s.n. (B). A. ausana Dinter: 259 (1931). Syntypes: Namibia, Aus, Dinter 3149; Namibia, Klein Karas, Dinter 4762 (B, hole; PRE!).
Information
Plants 100-300 mm tall excluding inflorescence, in dense clumps. Leaves ± 20-25, ascend­ing, held at an angle of at least 45° to the hori­zontal, lanceolate-deltoid, 70-180 x 30-80 mm, channelled to V-shaped in section, deep green to grey-green with white spots. Inflorescence usu­ally simple, rarely 1- or 2-branched; peduncles 200^1-00 mm long; bracts narrowly deltoid, very thin, scarious, white, 8-15 x 3-7 mm, 1-nerved. Flowers flesh-pink to dull scarlet, 22-45 mm long; outer segments free for 5-7 mm, inner segments adnate to outer; pedicels 3-7 mm long, scarcely longer in fruit. Anthers exserted up to 2 mm. Ovary 5-7 x 2-3 mm, green to reddish brown; style exserted up to 2 mm. Fruit ± 27-30 x 25 mm, blue-grey to buff. Flowering time July to September.
Habitat
Aloe variegata occurs in Namibia, the Northern Cape, Free State and Western and Eastern Cape, on clayey soils, or rarely soils of decomposed granite, in karoo vegetation and on the edge of the Namib Desert. Plants usually grow in the protection of small bushes of Pentzia and similar genera. Map 32. This species differs from A. sladeniana (no. 41) in having leaves with entire margins, and which are somewhat larger and more regularly three-ranked than those of A. sladeniana. The flowers of A. sladeniana are paler in colour than those of A. variegata. In A. dinteri (no. 42), the leaves are more nearly horizontal, much longer and more sharply folded.
Use
40. Aloe variegata L., Species plantarum: 321 (1753); Mill.: no. 9 (1768); Lam.: 89 (1783); Aiton: 470 (1789); Thunb.: 61 (1794); Willd.: 190 (1799); DC: 21 (1799); Sims: t. 513 (1801); W.T.Aiton: 296 (1811); Haw.: 81 (1812); Thunb.: 312 (1823); Salm-Dyck: 20, t. 2 (1840); Baker: 328 (1896a); A.Berger: 188 (1908); Marloth: 90 (1915); Pole Evans: t. 86 (1923b); Reynolds: 207 (1950); Jeppe: 16 (1969); Soldi, Roessler & Merxm.: 19 (1970); Bornman & D.S.Hardy: 75 (1972); Jankowitz: 54 (1975); B.-E. van Wyk & G.F.Sm.: 246 (1996). Iconotype: Aloe africana humilis, foliis ex albo & viride variegatis C.Commelijn, Horti medici Amstelaedamensis plantae rariores et exoticae: 47, t. 47 (1706).
Aloe variegata [family ALOACEAE]
PDF

Related Materials