Aloe in Angola (Asphodelaceae: Alooideae)

Botanical exploration of Angola was virtually impossible during the almost three-decade-long civil war. With more areas becoming accessible, there is, however, a revived interest in the flora o f this country. A total o f 27 members o f the genus Aloe L. have been recorded for Angola. It is not unlikely that new taxa will be discovered, and that the distribution ranges o f oth­ ers will be expanded now that botanical exploration in Angola has resumed. This manuscript provides a complete taxonomic treatment of the known Aloe taxa in Angola. It includes, amongst other information, identification keys, descriptions and


INTRODUCTION
The Republic of Angola covers an area o f ± 1 246 700 km2 in southwest-central Africa. Its west ern boundary is 1 650 km along the Atlantic Ocean and it is bordered by Namibia in the south, the Democratic Republic of Congo in the north and northeast, and Zam bia in the east. The detached province of Cabinda has a border with the Republic of Congo in the north and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the southeast (http://www.angola.org) (Figure 1).
The geography of Angola is extremely varied. The flat coastal part has a few shallow bays and is bordered by a sparsely vegetated coastal plain that extends inland for 48-165 km. This coastal belt is separated from the central plateau by an intermediate mountain belt of irregular ter races, running mostly parallel to the coast. Water is more abundant in these mountain chains and the vegetation is therefore lush. The central plateau has an altitude of 1 200-1 800 m and consists of rolling plains and low hills with scanty vegetation. The plateau falls away in the east to the basins of the Congo and Zambezi Rivers and merges with the barren, sandy Namib Desert in the south. Several small rivers arise in the mountain belt and drain westward to the sea. The largest of these are the Cuanza and Cunene Riv ers. From the plateau, the Cuango and other rivers flow northwards to join the Casai River, one of the largest tribu taries of the Congo River. Rivers in the south of the coun try either belong to the Zambezi River system or, like the Okavango, drain to Lake Ngami in Botswana (http://www. biocrawler.com/encyclopedia/Geography of Angola).
Angola is situated in a subtropical zone, but owing to several factors, the climate of the country is not typical of such areas. Angola's climate is influenced by the cold Benguela Current along the southern part of the coast, the high lands in the interior and the Namib Desert in the southwest.
The country has two distinct seasons: the rainy season from October to May, with average coastal temperatures of around 21°C and the dryer season with lower average coastal temperatures of around 16°C and mist or Cacimbo from June to September. The heaviest rains occur in April and are accompanied by violent storms. Rainfall along the coast is high and gradually decreases from 800 mm in the north to 50 mm in the south. The interior can be divided into three zones: the North, with very heavy rains and high temperatures; the Central Plateau, a dry area with average temperatures; and the South with temperature fluctuations due to the proximity of the Kalahari Desert and the influ ence of tropical air currents (http://www.biocrawler.com/ encyclopedia/GeographyofAngola).
The vegetation o f Angola is predominantly Zambezian and falls mainly within the Tropical Grassland (Savanna) zone. Six o f White's phytochoria are represented in the country (White 1983). Humid tropical rainforest occurs in the north o f the country and the arid Namib Desert and Karoo-Namib shrubland occur in a narrow coastal strip in the southwest. Elsewhere the vegetation consists mostly o f miombo woodland, dry evergreen forest, dry deciduous forest, grassland and savanna with Afromontane formations in the highlands (Airy Shaw 1947;Costa et al. 2004). In a recent classification of terrestrial ecoregions based on ecological features, climate, and plant and animal communities, 15 regions are represented in Angola (World Wildlife Fund 2001).
The geography and unique climatic characteristics of the area provide Angola with a rich biodiversity. How ever, the flora of the country remains poorly known, a situation recently addressed by Figueiredo & Smith (2008). Although the first botanical specimens from Angola were collected towards the end of the 18th cen tury and various explorations were carried out during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, the Angolan Civil War  prevented the country from being properly surveyed for almost three decades. After the end of the civil war, some areas are still inaccessible owing to the threat o f landmines (Costa et al. 2004). Even before the war, the poor condition o f some roads prevented explor ers from reaching many isolated habitats in this country. This situation still prevails to some extent today. With certain areas of the country becoming increasingly acces sible, a new interest in the botanical wealth of Angola is surfacing.
In 2006, a project on the flora of Angola, Flora of Angola Online (FLAN) was initiated in the South Afri can National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), with the collaboration of the Instituto de Investiga^ao Cientifica Tropical in Lisbon, Portugal, and the Instituto de Investi-ga£áo Agronómica in Angola. The project had the objec tive of producing a compilation of plant names with associated specimen data, with the collaboration of 32 botanists. As a result of this joint effort, a comprehen sive list o f the vascular plants of Angola was compiled (Figueiredo & Smith 2008).
The results of that project (Figueiredo & Smith 2008;Figueiredo et al. in press) provide the following data for the plant diversity of the country: a total vascular flora of 7 296 taxa, consisting of 6 961 species (of which 6 735 are indigenous) and 335 infraspecific taxa (of which 331 are indigenous), belonging to 250 families; 997 species and 72 infraspecific taxa are endemic.
This manuscript provides a complete treatment of the known Aloe L. taxa in Angola. It is the culmination o f research done for the Angolan Flora Project and also forms part of the Aloes of the World Project, which is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Its objec tives are to compile as much information as possible on representatives of the genus Aloe and to make this data available to a broad range of stakeholders through the internet as part of the African Plants Initiative of Aluka (Smith et al. 2008a, b).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Geo-referencing of specimens was undertaken for all the specimens examined. The co-ordinates of the collecting locality of each specimen were determined using the Angolan map collection kept at the Instituto de Investiga^ao Cientifica Tropical. Distribution maps are based on the type specimens and those cited under Additional specimens examined. These specimens are mainly housed in LISC and PRE, but also in BM, BR, E, G, K, LISU, M and MO (acronyms as in Holmgren et al. 1990). Specimens not housed at LISC, LISU or PRE were viewed on the Aluka website (http://www.aluka. org) of the African Plants Initiative. Specimens housed at B were viewed on the virtual herbarium website of the Herbarium Barolinense (Ropert 2000). Further distribu tion records for taxa with a distribution range extend ing outside Angola, were obtained from specimens cited in treatments of the genus in Flora zambesiaca (Carter 2001) and Flora o f tropical East Africa (Carter 1994), as well as specimens housed at PRE. This treatment includes a summary of the discovery of aloes in Angola, as well as identification keys to the taxa using either field or herbarium characters. For each taxon a description, based on the abbreviated description template of the Aloes of the World Project (Smith et al. 2008a, b), is provided. Other information that is supplied for each taxon includes the protologue citation, type specimen information, diagnostic characters and speci mens investigated, as well as notes on habitat, flowering time, distribution and endemism (indicated by E in front of the taxon name). Each taxon is further accompanied by a distribution map.  Kunene-Zambezi Expedition (1899-1900), John Gossweiler (1903-1944), Edgar Milne-Redhead (1938), Eduardo J. Mendes (1955-1956-1960, Gil bert W. Reynolds (1959), Larry C. Leach &I. C. Cannell during the early 1970s andBaptista de Sousa (1973). Botanical exploration and the possible discovery of new Aloe taxa ceased with the advent of the 27-year-long Angolan Civil War. As a result of vast areas of the coun try remaining unexplored, it is likely that more taxa will be found once detailed botanical surveys of these areas are resumed.

HISTORY OF ALOE DISCOVERY IN ANGOLA
The first Aloe specimens from Angola were collected by Welwitsch during 1853-1861. From these collections Baker (1878) described six new species, of which only A. platyphylla Baker was later reduced to synonymy under A. zebrina Baker, and A. angolensis Baker is sometimes considered to be either a hybrid between A. zebrina and A. littoral is Baker or to be a synonym of the latter species (Glen & Hardy 2000;Carter 2001). A further species, A. venenosa Engl., was described by Engler (1893) from material collected by Wissmann & Pogge during their expedition through Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1881 1882. This spe cies has not been collected since and remains insuffi ciently known. During the Kunene-Zambezi Expedition of 1899 to 1900, Baum collected Aloe specimens from which three new species were described by Engler & Gilg (1903 Baker and A. zebrina, respectively. In 1903, Gossweiler collected material that was later described by Berger (1906) as Aloepaedogona A. Berger. Christian (1936) described A. bulbicaulis Christian from material collected by Porter in Zambia, but Reynolds (1966) later established that it is a later synonym of A. paedogona. The latter species is, furthermore, consid ered by some (Reynolds 1966;Keay 1968) as a syno nym o f A. buettneri A.Berger, although more recent views (Carter 1994) consider the three as separate taxa. Milne-Redhead collected a further Aloe in 1938 that was subsequently described by Christian (1940a) as A. milneredheadii Christian.
Reynolds visited Angola during June and July of 1959, but could not reach certain areas in the northeast and southeast of the country due to the inaccessibility of these areas. During his journey he established that A. hereroensis Engl., from Namibia and the Northern Cape Province o f South Africa, also occurs in Angola. An additional six species were described by Reynolds (1960Reynolds ( , 1961Reynolds ( , 1962Reynolds ( , 1964 after his Angolan travels, all of which are still upheld.

During the early 1970s, Leach & Cannell collected
Aloe material in Angola from which Leach (1971Leach ( , 1974 described five new species and a new variety of A. andongensis Baker. At the same time Leach (1974) also described a further species of which the material was collected and given to him by Baptista de Sousa in 1973. All seven o f these taxa are still considered cur rent, although A. esculenta L.C.Leach is sometimes con sidered to be synonymous with A. angolensis (Glen & Hardy 2000).

IDENTIFICATION KEYS
Two identification keys are presented below. The first uses field characters for the identification o f living plants, whereas the second uses mostly leaf and inflorescence characters (flowers, pedicels and floral bracts) and is aimed at identifying herbarium specimens. Aloe venenosa is not included in the identification keys owing to lack of information for this insufficiently known species.    Branched shrub. Stem short or 0.3-0.6 m high, branched, ascending, sometimes becoming decumbent, with persistent dried leaves. Leaves rosulate at branch apices, varying from spreading and slightly recurved to suberectly spreading and compact, dull grey-green, upper surface mostly without spots, sometimes sparsely spotted, lower surface usually with many crowded spots near base, lanceolate-attenuate, 200-250 x 60-70 mm; margin slightly cartilaginous, with brownish teeth 2-3 mm long, 5-7 mm apart; leaf exudate crusty when dry. Inflorescence 0.3-0.4 m high, erect, 2or 3-branched. Raceme subcapitate to cylindrical-acumi nate, 60-120 mm long, dense. Floral bracts 5-8 x 3 mm. Pedicels 14-18 mm long. Flowers: perianth pale orangescarlet, paler at tips, 25 mm long, 5-6 mm across ovary, narrowed above ovary, widening towards mouth giving a clavate appearance, cylindric and very slightly decurved; outer segments free for 17 mm. Stamens exserted up to 1 mm. Style exserted up to 1-2 mm. Flowering time: January to April.
Diagnostic characters: upper leaf surface mostly without spots, sometimes sparsely spotted, lower surface usually with many crowded spots near the base. Buds all spread somewhat horizontally or slightly deflexed. Inflor escence subdense, subcapitate, with flowers lacking a basal swelling.
Relationships with other species: Reynolds (1966) placed Aloe andongensis in his Group 19: Plants of shrubby growth. It seems to be closely related to A. lepida L.C.Leach and also shows a strong link in vegetative char acters with A. squarrosa Baker from Socotra (Leach 1974). Habitat: exposed rocky places. Distribution: endemic to Angola (Cuanza Sul, Huambo, Malange) ( Figure 2). Illustrations: Reynolds: 347 (1966). Branched shrub, forming large spreading clumps. Stem up to 0.6 m high, branched freely from base and above, prostrate, with persistent dried leaves. Leaves rosulate at branch apices, widely spreading, dull greygreen, upper surface mostly without spots, sometimes sparsely spotted, lower surface usually with copious crowded spots near base, spots tend to be arranged in wavy transverse bands, lanceolate-attenuate, smaller and narrower than typical variety; margin slightly carti laginous, with brownish teeth smaller and more crowded than typical variety; exudate crusty when dry. Inflores cence 0.3-0.4 m high, erect, 2-or 3-branched. Raceme subcapitate to cylindrical-acuminate, 60-120 mm long, dense. Floral bracts 5-8 x 3 mm. Pedicels 14-18 mm long. Flowers: perianth pale orange-scarlet, paler at tips, 25 mm long, 5-6 mm across ovary, narrowed above ovary, widening towards mouth giving a clavate appear ance, cylindric and very slightly decurved; outer seg ments free for 17 mm. Stamens exserted up to 1 mm. Style exserted up to 1-2 mm. Flowering time: February to April.
Diagnostic characters: prostrate habit. Stems up to 0.6 m long, branching freely from the base and above, thus form ing large spreading clumps. Stems foliate for greatest part of their length. Leaves much smaller, narrower, and more widely spreading than typical variety of species, also more copiously white-spotted with spots tending to be arranged in wavy transverse bands, with smaller, more crowded marginal teeth. Buds all spread somewhat horizontally or slightly deflexed. Inflorescence subdense, subcapitate, with flowers lacking a basal swelling. Ovary brownish orange.
Diagnostic characters', thick leaves and branched inflorescence with dense racemes of sulphur-yellow flowers.
Relationships with other species'. Reynolds (1966) stated that the affinities of this species are uncertain, but noted that the thick leaves and type of inflorescence suggest a link with the Aloe littoralis-complex. Reynolds (unpub lished notes at PRE) further speculated that A. angolen sis might be a natural hybrid between A. littoralis and A. zebrina Baker. This viewr is upheld by Glen & Hardy (2000), although they regarded it as conspecific with A. esculenta L.C. Leach. Carter (2001) considered it as a synonym of A. littoralis.
Habitat: low hills facing the Bengo River valley, not far from the sea.
Distribution: endemic to Angola (Bengo) (Figure 2). Notes: this species has not been found again since Welwitsch collected the type specimen. A specimen col lected on steep limestone slopes facing the sea between the Dande River Mouth and the road to Caxito, north of Luanda [Barbosa & Santos 10833 (LISC)] is considered to possibly be Aloe angolensis. However, this specimen was not in flower and had dry, dehisced capsules. Until such time as flowering plants are found at this locality, it is not possible to say if this specimen belongs to A. angolensis or not (Reynolds 1966;Reynolds, unpub  Acaulescent, up to 0.5 m high, with leaf bases enlarged below ground to form bulb-like swelling; rosettes solitary. Leaves rosulate, deciduous, spreading, bright green, longitudinally striate, slightly fleshy, sur face smooth, ovate-lanceolate, up to 500 mm long, 150 mm wide at middle; margin white, cartilaginous, with densely crowded, fairly evenly-spaced, whitish teeth, 1 mm long, 1-5 mm apart. Inflorescence up to 0.6 m high, erect, 3-or 4-branched. Raceme cylindrical, 100-200 mm long, lax below, more dense above. Floral bracts 8-15 x 5-8 mm. Pedicels ± 20 mm long. Flowers: perianth pale yellow to pinkish or brownish yellow with darker nerves, 35-40 mm long, 8-10 mm across ovary, slightly constricted above ovary, widening towards wide-open mouth, cylindrical; outer segments free for one-third (12-13 mm). Stamens scarcely exserted. Style slightly exserted. Flowering time: February.
Diagnostic characters: underground bulb. Leaves up to 500 mm long, 150 mm wide in middle, with densely crowded teeth of 1 mm long. Floral bracts ovate-acuminate, 8-15 mm long.
Relationships with other species: Reynolds (1966) consid ered Aloe bulbicaulis to be conspecific with A. buettneri together with A. paedogona. Carter (1994) stated that the three taxa are morphologically clearly distinct and also separated geographically and therefore does not agree with Reynold's opinion that the three taxa are conspecific. Notes: cited in Carter (1994) to occur in western Angola. This is clearly a mistake and should be eastern Angola Shrub, forming dense, tangled thickets of 1-2 m across. Stem 1.5-2.0 m long, simple or branching low down, slender, ascending, divergent or sprawling, dried leaves not persistent. Leaves rather laxly rosulate on api cal 0.3 m of stem, spreading to deflexed near base, pale yellowish grey-green, with copious, very pale green len ticular spots on both surfaces, more numerous towards base, narrowly lanceolate-attenuate, ± 300 x ± 35 mm; sheath lineate, 15-20 mm long; margin with firm, pale, reddish brown-tipped teeth, 3 mm long, 8-10 mm apart. Inflorescence 0.4 m high, erect or suberect, slender, divaricately about 6-branched. Raceme cylindrical-acu minate, terminal raceme longest, 160 mm long, erect, lateral racemes shorter, oblique, rather lax, flowers sub-secund on lateral racemes. Floral bracts 5 x 3 mm. Pedi cels 10 mm long. Flowers: perianth dull scarlet, 28 mm long, 7 mm across ovary, slightly narrowed above ovary, slightly enlarging towards mouth, cylindric, slightly decurved; outer segments free for 10 mm. Stamens exserted 1-2 mm. Style exserted up to 2 mm. Flowering time: March to July.
Diagnostic characters: forms dense, tangled thick ets. Stems slender. Leaves peculiar pale yellowish greygreen, usually copiously spotted on both surfaces. Inflor escence slender and divaricately branched. Racemes vary from terminal erect with flowers evenly distributed around axis, to oblique with flowers somewhat secund.
Diagnostic characters: rosette large. Inflorescence tall and branched. Floral bracts small, up to 18 mm long, pedicels short, 8-20 mm long. Flowers cylindric-trigonous, with thick, fleshy perianth and outer segments free for only 15 mm.
Relationships with other species: Aloe christianii is closely related to A. pretoriensis Pole Evans from north ern South Africa and Zimbabwe (Reynolds 1966). Habitat: usually in shade in woodland, sometimes in tall grassland, never on rocks. Distribution: eastern Angola (Moxico), southern and eastern Democratic Republic o f the Congo, Malawi, northern Mozambique, eastern Tanzania, Zambia, north ern Zimbabwe (Figure 3). Illustrations: Reynolds: 187, 188 (1966); Lane: 32(2004). Notes: this species has not yet been collected in Angola, but it was reportedly seen in Angola near the Zambian border west o f Matonchi by Mr Edgar Milne-Redhead (Reynolds 1966;Carter 2001).
Relationships with other species: Aloe dinteri, together with its close relatives, A. sladeniana Pole Evans from central Namibia and A. variegata L. from southern, west ern and central South Africa and southern Namibia, forms the Section Serrulatae Salm-Dyck (Glen & Hardy 2000).
Note: this species was previously considered to be endemic to northern Namibia and occurs near the Cunene River west of Ruacaná. Due to its frequent proxi mity to the river, it was believed likely to occur north of the Cunene River in Angola (Hardy 1992). In fact, a few plants were reportedly seen near Namibe (Mo<?ámedes) on low stony ridges and in stony desert areas (Downs 1970 Acaulescent or sometimes with short, thick, often decumbent stem, up to 0.4 m long; rosettes suckering to form dense clumps. Leaves condensed rosulate, erectly spreading or recurved, greyish green, with pinkish brown tinge in dry conditions, densely white-spotted on both sur faces, spots more copious on lower surface, arranged in irregular transverse bands, pungent blackish brown spines along median line, lanceolate, up to 500 mm long, 80 mm wide at base; margin with pungent, blackish brown teeth, 3-5 mm long, 10-20 mm apart; leaf exudate not bitter. Inflorescence up to 2 m high, erect, 3-5-branched, lower branches sometimes sparsely rebranched. Raceme cylin drical-acuminate, 300-500 mm long, lax. Floral bracts 20-27 x 10-11 mm. Pedicels 5-6 mm long. Flowers: peri anth pink with cream-coloured stripes, becoming yellow ish when mature, 28-30 mm long, ± 6 mm across ovary, enlarging towards middle, distinctly subclavate; outer seg ments free for 15-18 mm. Stamens exserted up to 6 mm. Style exserted up to 8 mm. Flowering time: July to August.
Diagnostic characters: spotted aloe. Acaulescent plants forming clumps, frequently of shrubby habit. Leaves copiously white-spotted, with large spots arranged in transverse bands. Strong blackish brown spines along median line on underside of leaf. Flowers distinctly subclavate; stigma exserted up to 8 mm.
Relationships with other species: at first sight this species looks very much like a stemless form of Aloe littoralis, to which it is closely allied. Leach (1971) stated that it may well be considered as an ecologically separated sub species of A. littoralis. Glen & Hardy (2000) regarded it as conspecific with A. angolensis, with the latter name Thicket-forming shrub. Stem 1.0-1.5 m long, branch ing from ground level only, ascending or divergent, without persistent dried leaves. Leaves subdensely rosu late at branch apices, spreading to slightly recurved, green, mostly without spots, lanceolate-attenuate, ± 300 mm long, 50 mm wide at base; margin with pale deltoid teeth, 3-4 mm long, 15 mm apart. Inflorescence 0.4-0.5 m high, erect, pyramidal, divaricately 6-8-branched. Raceme cylindric-acuminate, 100-150 mm long, termi nal raceme the longest, dense, flowers subsecund when open. Floral bracts 3 x 2 mm. Pedicels 10 mm long. Flowers: perianth scarlet, paler at tips, 30 mm long, 6 mm across ovary, very slightly narrowed above ovary, slightly enlarging towards trigonal mouth; outer seg ments free for 10-12 mm. Stamens exserted 1-2 mm. Style exserted 2-3 mm. Flowering time: March.
Diagnostic characters', leaves with small crowded mar ginal teeth that are sometimes almost serrate, lower surface with copious white, small, circular spots near base. Inflor escence simple in young plants, forked in older plants, 2or 3-branched in largest specimens. Racemes capitate or almost so. Perianth scarcely trigonously indented above ovary. Floral bracts 2 mm long, 1 -nerved.
Diagnostic characters: inflorescence divaricately branched with oblique to subhorizontal racemes of secund flowers.
Relationships with other species: its nearest ally is Aloe secundiflora Engl, from eastern and northeastern Africa (Reynolds 1966).  Relationships with other species: Aloe hereroensis is included in Section Asperifoliae (A.Berger) Glen & D.S.Hardy and is closely allied to A. viridiflora Giess from central Namibia (Glen & Hardy 2000).
Diagnostic characters: leaves obscurely lineate with H-shaped spots. Racemes short, sometimes almost subcapitate. Pedicels 22-27 mm long. Flowers dull red with much inflated truncate base and genitalia scarcely or not exserted.
Diagnostic characters: leaves dark yellowish green, strongly recurved, conspicuously marked with irregular transverse wavy bands of whitish spots, armed with large marginal teeth. Inflorescence with lax, cylindric-acuminate racemes, with buds quickly nodding. Flower slender with outer segments free for 5-6 mm, with mouth widely open, stamens included and stigma only occasionally very shortly exserted.
Diagnostic characters: caulescent, simple-stemmed, solitary plants. Leaves without spots when mature, few spots on young plants. No spines along median line of leaf. Inflorescence branched from low down. Flowers cylindri cal, stigma seldom if ever exserted more than 3 mm.
Relationships with other species: closely allied to Aloe esculenta (see notes under latter species). A. littoralis is included in Section Pachydendron (Haw.) Salm-Dyck (Glen & Hardy 2000).
Habitat: usually grows on rocky outcrops in mixed open woodland and grassland. Also on calcrete or sand. Sum mer rain and very dry, warm to cool winters.
Diagnostic characters: grows hanging down on cliffs. Leaves broad, unspotted. Branched inflorescence pen dent, with only racemes arcuate-ascending. Flowers scarlet. Floral bracts and pedicels relatively long.
Diagnostic characters: bracts long, white, promi nently nerved. Apical buds of racemes at first covered by densely imbricate bracts.
Relationships with other species: Reynolds (1966) placed Aloe metallica in his Group 9. It keys out with A. massawana Reynolds (now a synonym of A. eumassawana S.Carter & M.G.Gilbert) from eastern Africa, A. vacillans Forssk. and A. officinalis Forssk. from Yemen.
Diagnostic characters: racemes short, rather dense. Pedicels long. Leaves copiously spotted with spots in transverse bands. Plants forming clumps.
Grass aloe, growing singly or with 2 or 3 stems, some times up to 12 and more tufted stems. Stems very short or up to 0.2 m long, erect. Leaves rosulate, erectly spread ing, sometimes deflexed at about middle, green, upper surface sometimes obscurely lineate, usually with few pale spots near base, lower surface usually copiously spotted near base, spots occasionally spinulescent, grass like and subfleshy, linear, 400-500 mm long, up to 40 mm at dilated base, abruptly narrowed to 15-20 mm, tapering towards apex; margin very narrow, white, with densely crowded, minute, white, soft, cartilaginous teeth, up to 1 mm long. Inflorescence 0.6-0.8 m high, erect, unbranched. Raceme cylindrical-acuminate, 150-200 mm long, dense; buds entirely covered by large imbri cate bracts. Floral bracts 15-25 x 10-20 mm. Pedicels 25-35 mm long. Flowers: perianth coral-pink to orangered with green tips, 35-42 mm long, 7-9 mm across ovary, not narrowed above ovary, cylindrical-trigonous, base tapering into pedicel; outer segments free almost to base or for 3 A of length. Stamens not exserted. Style exserted 0-1 mm. Flowering time: January to March, depending on locality and rainfall.
Relationships with other species: Reynolds (1966) consid ered Aloe paedogona to be conspecific with A. buettneri together with A. bulbicaulis. Carter (1994) stated that the three taxa are morphologically clearly distinct and also separated geographically and therefore does not agree with Reynold's opinion that the three taxa are conspecific.
Diagnostic characters: leaves pale green, 80-95 mm wide, apical portion dry and withered. Inflorescence remarkably tall, up to almost 3 m, branched above mid dle, with long laxly flowered racemes of small purple flowers, subtended by small few-nerved bracts.
Diagnostic characters: stems averaging 2-3 m, mostly simple or branched from the base. Old dry leaf remains not persistent. Leaves obscurely lineate on upper surface, more prominently lineate on lower sur face, especially in lower half. Perianth slightly clavate.
Diagnostic characters: plants scrambling and shrubby in habit. Leaves yellow-green, almost invariably immacu late, with small marginal teeth. Inflorescence with very slender peduncle, which is at first usually descending, then arcuately-ascending, with the rather dense, narrow, acuminate racemes held erect. Buds suberect. Flowers curved. Bracts large, prominently nerved, orange-brown.
Diagnostic characters: very shrubby plant of rela tively dwarf stature, with stem branched from base. Rosettes of grey-blue to blue-green leaves tilted to one side. Inflorescence simple or 1-branched from low down, with narrow acuminate racemes. Short, bright scarlet flowers with outer segments free for only 4.5-6.0 mm carried on relatively short pedicels.