BCSS - Forum

Hi!
I'm a new member , but I've been growing succulent plants for a few years.
My main interest is aloe plants , primarily species plants, but I enjoyed making hybrid seeds last year, and had some success with germinating the first lot along with some species (striata and polyphylla).
I hope to have more success with the newly planted hybrid seeds.

I'm loving reading through the forum and really looking forward to springtime.

(As a post script, I've been searching for a copy of "aloes-the definitive guide" for a couple of years with no success, if anyone knows where I might find a copy, PLEASE let me know!! )

Cheers

Welcome from Manchester!

The BCSS is very used to people with narrow specialisms (I am referring to your other post, I don't want to confuse the thread there). Though I assume you mean Aloe sensu lato (the ones that were aloes) and not the much smaller botanical use of Aloe sensu stricto (the ones that have not, yet, been assigned to new genera). That would be very specialised.

My main interest is asclepiads. Though I do have one Aloe. The one true Aloe. Aloe vera.

Thanks for the welcome, and yes, "aloes" in the broad sense! ( inc. Kumara, aloidendron , gonialoe, aloiampelos etc).
Aloe Vera is interesting. There seem to be two quite distinct plants with that name. I've read people using "cinesis" and "barbensis" to distinguish between them , but I'm not at all sure which is the "true" (vera) aloe Vera!
I've even read speculation that it ( whatever "it" is!) may, in fact, be a hybrid itself.
I'm in real need of an encyclopedic reference book!

If I read this paper right, the closest species to Aloe vera are all from the Arabian Peninsula - Aloe purpurea, yemenica, acutissima and bakeri. If it is a hybrid, I would assume it would have to have hybridised before it went into international trade, before 400 BC. They theorise it had a very narrow range like the other surviving Arabian aloes and became extinct due to over-harvesting very rapidly. Luckily, unlike silphium, the plant could be grown elsewhere very easily.

https://bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/a ... 015-0291-7

I have seen what looked to me to be one of the poisonous aloes sold as Aloe vera. There are a lot of aloes that have been misidentified in the marketplace.

Welcome
Wishing you a great spring season