Aloe × retiefii Gideon F.Sm., 2020

Smith, Gideon F., 2020, Aloe × retiefii (Asphodelaceae subfam. Alooideae), a new nothospecies from northeastern South Africa, with A. globuligemma and A. marlothii as parents, Phytotaxa 468 (1), pp. 150-154 : 150-153

Aloe × retiefii Gideon F.Sm. , nothosp. nov.

Type:— SOUTH AFRICA. Gauteng province.—2528 (Pretoria): Pretoria, (–CA), ex hort., 07 August 2020, G.F. Smith 1116 (holotype PRU) .

Parentage:— Aloe globuligemma Pole-Evans (1915: 30) × Aloe marlothii Berger (1905: 87)

Diagnosis:—Plants medium-sized to large, stemless or short-stemmed, stem often leaning slightly; leaves green to glaucous, boat-shaped, smooth or rarely (sub-)densely prickly, erect to slightly and haphazardly incurved; inflorescence a muchbranched panicle with, usually, horizontal racemes, subdensely- to very densely-flowered; buds usually various shades of whitish yellow, yellow or reddish orange; open flowers uniformly red, orange, white, or yellow; cigar-shaped thickened, secund.

Description:—Plants small to medium-sized, robust, short-stemmed, erect to slightly leaning under weight of rosette. Stem 40–50 cm long, clothed in somewhat twisted, variously down-curved, dry leaves that are persistent for a long time. Leaves rosulate, erect, haphazardly incurved to somewhat horizontally spreading, somewhat falcate-twisted, cymbiform-lanceolate, 90–140 cm long, 8–15 cm wide at base, light or dark green, nearly whitish green, or, most commonly, glaucous; both surfaces smooth, more rarely with scattered teeth, teeth often longitudinally aligned abaxially towards leaf apex, unspotted; margins concolorous or pinkish brown, armed with stiff very sharp teeth; teeth 3–5 mm long, 5–18 mm distant, uniformly light reddish brown or basally green and reddish brown higher up, distinctly curved towards leaf apex; leaf exudate drying golden brown. Inflorescence a much-branched panicle, usually one produced per flowering season, 1.0– 1.8 m tall, erect to slightly leaning, with branches horizontal to obliquely slanted upwards. Peduncle robust, with several scattered, sterile bracts lower down; bracts ± (8–)10(–12) mm long, dull-coloured, drying rapidly, triangular-deltoid. Racemes narrowly elongated, 60–80 cm long, ± 3–4 cm wide where flowers are at anthesis, densely- to subdensely-flowered; buds borne secundly with few pointing vertically downwards from slanted or horizontal raceme axis, flowers erect at anthesis. Floral bracts triangulardeltoid, strongly clasping pedicel lower down, variously curved away from pedicel upwards, narrower than sterile bracts. Pedicels 4–5 mm long, brownish green. Flowers copiously nectariferous; perianth buds various shades of whitish yellow, yellow, or reddish orange and longitudinally green-lined along tepal margins; open flowers uniformly red, orange, white, or yellow, sometimes with centre and margins of perianth segments dark green, ± 25–30 mm long, (9–)10–12(–13) mm at widest point above middle, widening considerably above ovary, ± cigar-shaped with middle and apical ½ globular-bulged, slightly narrowing towards mouth, tips spreading to distinctly flared to recurved, outer segments free for ¾ of their lengths; stamens with filiform-flattened filaments, included part light yellowish green, exserted part dark purplish black, exserted for up to 15 mm, anthers bright orange; ovary 5–7 mm long, 2–4 mm in diameter, light green; style well-exserted, included and exserted parts uniformly light yellow; stigma small, capitate, yellowish white. Fruit not seen. Seed not seen. Chromosome number: unknown.

Flowering time:—Both A. globuligemma and A. marlothii flower in mid- to late-winter to early-spring (July to September, southern hemisphere), as does A. × retiefii .

Eponymy:— Aloe × retiefii is named for Mr Jacobus Arnoldus (‘Kotie’) Retief (born 16 July 1945, Gauteng province, South Africa,) ( Fig. 5B ). Kotie matriculated from the Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool in Pretoria in 1963, then qualified with an MSc degree in Mathematics from the University of Pretoria (UP) in 1969, and was employed as a lecturer in Mathematics at UP from 1971 to 1996. He was an enthusiastic student and collector of succulent plants from an early age, and was elected to the board of the Succulent Society of South Africa (SSSA) in 1980 and served as its President from 2012. During his involvement with the SSSA, Kotie co-organised seven international conferences that mainly focused on the richness of the southern African succulent flora. He became a member of the editorial committee of the journal Aloe , publication of the SSSA, in 1978, and served as editor from 2010 to 2016, and earlier of its newsletter, Kambroo ( Smith & Van Wyk 1989, 1990). He published more than 25 articles in this journal, including one on the hybrid A. globuligemma × A. marlothii ( Retief 2018) . In 1994 he was one of the co-founders and directors of the publishing house Umdaus Press that produced more than 20 books on the succulent flora of southern Africa and related topics. In 1994 Kotie started Gariep Plants, a nursery that concentrates on succulent plants from Africa.

Figures

FIGURE 5. A. Some plants of Aloe ×retiefii have oblique rather than horizontal racemes. Photograph: Gideon F. Smith. B. J.A. ‘Kotie’ Retief, who is commemorated in A. ×retiefii, standing in front of the nothospecies here named for him. Photograph taken by Gideon F. Smith on 04 August 2020 at Gariep Plants, a succulent plant nursery established by Kotie in 1994.