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Type: Correspondence
Published: 2020-10-19
Page range: 252–256
Abstract views: 18
PDF downloaded: 1

Aloe ×engelbrechtii (Asphodelaceae subfam. Alooideae), a new South African nothospecies with A. arborescens and A. hardyi as parents

Department of Botany, Nelson Mandela University, P.O. Box 77000, Port Elizabeth, 6031 South Africa.
Department of Botany, Nelson Mandela University, P.O. Box 77000, Port Elizabeth, 6031 South Africa.
South Africa Aloe Asphodelaceae Monocots

Abstract

Aloe arborescens Miller (1768: no. 3 on first page headed “ALO ALO”) (Fig. 1A) is a parent of some intergeneric alooid hybrids, as well as of interspecific hybrids in Aloe Linnaeus (1753: 319), that have become popular in domestic and even industrial-scale horticulture [see for example Smith & Figueiredo 2015: 20, and Figueiredo & Smith 2019 on A. ×caesia Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck (1817: 29)]. Numerous forms of A. arborescens have additionally been provided with cultivar names (Van Jaarsveld 2002, Smith et al. 2021). Where A. arborescens and A. hardyi Glen (1987: plate 1942) (Figs 1B, C) are grown together, these two species hybridise with great ease and offspring of this hybrid are increasingly found in cultivation. However, to date the hybrid with the formula A. arborescens × A. hardyi does not have a name to enable easy communication about it. We here describe this increasingly common horticultural hybrid as A. ×engelbrechtii Gideon F.Sm. & Figueiredo (Figs 2A, B).