Aloe kniphofioides Baker, 1890
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https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.142.48365 |
persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/B514473A-D573-533A-B6CF-38850252112B |
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scientific name |
Aloe kniphofioides Baker |
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Aloe kniphofioides Baker View in CoL
Common names.
Grass aloe (English); grasaalwyn (Afrikaans).
Description.
Grass aloe. Acaulescent plants; rosettes solitary, leaf bases forming bulb-like underground swelling. Leaves rosulate, erect, green, without spots, narrowly linear, 20-40 cm long, 0.6-0.7 cm wide, dilating below ground-level to 2.0-3.0 cm wide; margin entire or minutely dentate, with small, white teeth, ± 0.7 mm long, 1-2 mm apart, more crowded lower down; exudate clear. Inflorescence up to 0.30-0.55 m high, erect, simple. Raceme cylindrical, 10-15 cm long, very lax, few-flowered. Floral bracts 15-22 mm long, 4-7 mm wide. Pedicels 12-18 mm long. Flowers: perianth pale pink to scarlet, green-tipped, 30-50 mm long, base rounded, 6-7 mm across ovary, not narrowed above ovary, cylindrical, slightly curved; outer segments free for 6-8 mm; stamens and style not or very shortly exserted to 1 mm.
Flowering time.
October-November.
Habitat.
Grassland in reasonably high rainfall areas. Rather heavy, stone-free soils.
Diagnostic characters.
Aloe kniphofioides can be distinguished from other grass aloes in KwaZulu-Natal where the leaf bases form a subterranean bulb-like swelling ( Aloe bergeriana , Aloe inconspicua and Aloe modesta ), by the long, narrow, bright red, unscented flowers (30-50 mm long) that are pendent in a very lax, unbranched, cylindrical raceme (10-15 cm long), with pedicels 12-18 mm long. The narrow leaves (20-40 × 0.6-0.7 cm) are usually without spots and with or without minute white marginal teeth.
Conservation status.
Near-threatened. Threats include habitat transformation and degradation owing to mining, commercial afforestation and alien invasives, as well as a loss of pollinators and poor fire management leading to poor recruitment ( Raimondo et al. 2009, L. von Staden pers. comm.).
Distribution.
Widely but sparsely distributed. This species has a disjunct distribution: it occurs in the Kokstad area on the border of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape province; and then along the Great Escarpment in northern KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and just entering the eastern Free State, South Africa, as well as in Eswatini (Fig. 18 View Figure 18 ).
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.
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