Aloe Species

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

In a rare house you will not find a “grandmother's” agave - a healing plant for all occasions.

The genus of aloe includes more than 430 species of plants growing in Arabia, India, Africa, Madagascar. Most of all we know

aloe tree, as well as

aloe vera - medicinal plants used in pharmacopoeia and cosmetics in many countries.

In culture, especially in recent years, you can find many interesting, highly decorative forms and varieties of these exotic plants.

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In northern places, the appearance of aloe helps to recreate a piece of the distant world of hot deserts in the house. Its juicy leaves with thorny thorns, covered with a grayish-green waxy coating, are thus protected from the bright hot sun. The wax slows down the evaporation of moisture from the plant and allows them to survive in the arid conditions of deserts.

The various forms of rosette aloe species are great for creating compositions in wide low containers, imitating a desert landscape on a windowsill. Plants need a sandy-rocky soil with drainage in a container, good lighting. Due to its desert nature, aloe of various species and varieties tolerate the dry air of apartments well. But they need wintering in a cool and bright place, at a temperature of + 12 … + 14 ° С.

Stemless aloe

Among the stemless undersized species -

spinous aloe (Aloe aristata) - with numerous bluish-green leaves (sometimes up to 100) in a rosette up to 25 cm in diameter. The leaves are densely arranged in a spiral, their tops are directed upwards, they are narrow-lanceolate, turning into a long awn (like cereals). The width of thorny leaves at the base is up to 1.8 cm, the height of the rosette is up to 12 cm. The forked-branched peduncle grows up to 30 cm. The flowers are small, cylindrical, red, up to 5 cm long. This type of aloe blooms in May-June. Has a variety of shapes.

Aloe short-leaved(Aloe brevifolia) up to 11 cm high, rosette with 30-40 lanceolate leaves without spots and stripes, thorns along the edges of the leaves are slightly whitish. The peduncle is simple, up to 30 cm high, covered with many covering leaves. Flower dense brush size 15h8 cm flowers on short pedicels, red length of 3.5 cm..

Aloe striata (Aloe striata) - acaulescent plant 15-20 lanceolate leaves a length of 50 cm and a width of 10-15 cm at the base of gathered into a tight outlet. Leaves are grayish-green with a reddish sheen, decorated with spots and stripes, whitish-reddish along the edges. It blooms in April-May with reddish flowers up to 2.5 cm in size, slightly swollen at the base, on branched peduncles with 20 or more brushes. The species is very decorative, easily crossed with other species.

Aloe variegated(Aloe variegate) is a succulent, often with a short stem, on which lanceolate pointed leaves are densely arranged in a spiral in three rows. Their length reaches 12 cm, width at the base up to 3 cm; from above the leaves are grooved, from below scaphoid with a keel, green, with longitudinal white stripes of spots, awnless at the top. It blooms in April - May with red flowers up to 3.5 cm

long. Aloe soap(Aloe saponaria) is widely known in culture. The thick, branched stem is decorated with many rosettes with 12-15 leaves growing up to 45-60 cm long. The leaves are lanceolate, fleshy, almost horizontally located, at the base up to 7 cm wide, about 1 cm thick in the middle of the leaf. The color of the leaves is green with white oblong spots. At the edges of the leaves, horn-shaped spines up to 0.5 cm long with a brownish-red apex. Peduncle up to 70 cm high, flower clusters are short, flowers are 4-4.5 cm long, bright yellow or reddish-yellow with greenish petals outside. Blooms in May - June.

Aloe ciliate(Aloe ciliaris) - climbing or climbing plant with a thin (1 cm) trunk up to 5 m long - in a greenhouse. Leaves linear-lanceolate, elongate-pointed, 8-15 cm long, 2-3 cm wide, thin, green in stripes, abundantly toothed at the edges.

Remote Aloe (Aloe distans) has creeping stem with ovate-pointed, grayish-green leaves 8-9 cm long and 5-6 cm wide brushes short, thick, yellow flowers bloom in June -. July.

There are also large species, such as

aloe Camperi, or

A. Eru(Aloe camperi, sin. A. eru) - with xiphoid, arched powerful leaves 40-60 cm long, convex below, glossy, green, with strong teeth at the edges. Such specimens look good in spacious office rooms, in hot places - glass display cases in combination with other large-sized drought-resistant and heat-resistant succulents.

All plants of the genus aloe contain biologically active substances, for which they are especially valued. We most often use aloe tree - both as home decoration, and for treatment, maintaining health with home remedies. Therefore, let's talk about it in more detail.

Read part 2. Growing aloe - agave →

Elena Kuzmina,

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