BCSS - Forum

Here’s an Aloe you don’t see very often. I think it was once a Lomatophyllum.
I have struggled to grow it and put it into a hanging basket as the long leaves got in the way and it has really taken off with the extra root room. Be nice if it would flower!

Herts Mike wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 12:03 pm Here’s an Aloe you don’t see very often. I think it was once a Lomatophyllum.
I have struggled to grow it and put it into a hanging basket as the long leaves got in the way and it has really taken off with the extra root room. Be nice if it would flower!
830234F2-57BA-41C4-9620-DC79511ECBDE.jpeg

Mike, I've struggled over the years with every lomatophyllum I've ever tried to grow. Good luck with getting this one to flower.

If your plant ever does strut its stuff try to pollinate it with some other aloe to see what the fruits are like. It should have fleshy berries of course, a characteristic feature of lomatophyllums.

Whether or not all 20+ lomatophyllums are actually closely related is yet to be resolved since many of these are very rare or indeed hardly ever grown in cultivation.

They're all endemic to the Indian Ocean Islands, mainly Madagascar, but also the Comoros, Mauritius, La Reunion, Aldabra and Pemba.

A. mayottensis of interest because it's endemic to Mayotte Island in the Comoros.

There are apparently two completely different aloes on Mayotte. The southern A. mayottensis is stemless (acaulescent), whereas apparently in the north there's a much larger growing, caulescent sp. whose identity is currently uncertain.

All lomatophyllums are only modestly succulent and come from warm humid climates which probably accounts for their trickiness in cultivation.

I have sakharensis which I have flowered but currently struggling with and 2 citreas that are going well.

Herts Mike wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 5:28 pm I have sakharensis which I have flowered but currently struggling with and 2 citreas that are going well.

I've still got 3 sakarahensis doing OK, the largest is in flower currently. It's even offsetting! Apparently they don't do that...
They live on warm to cool windowsills with some sun.
As for fleshy berries, well, everything is relative! Fleshier and more berry like than typical Aloe pods, and they take forever to finally dry out, but blueberries they ain't!

Colin,

my A. sakharaensis is currently producing some berries, so if you would like some when ripe, let me know. They are full of extremely sticky gloop, like misteltoe, and I'd guess the seed is dispersed in the same way.

I'm also growing A. citrea, courtesy of Mike, but it has yet to flower.

Ralph

My sakharaensis is a mass of offsets and I’ve taken one off which has rooted ok.

Herts Mike wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 5:28 pm I have sakharensis which I have flowered but currently struggling with and 2 citreas that are going well.

Sorry Mike, but the currently accepted name for Aloe sakarahensis is now A. zombitsiensis. Quite a few of the lomatophyllums have undergone name changes.

Our Aloes The Definitive Guide is out of date on this and now many other species I regret to say, but it was published a shocking 11 years ago, and the world has of course moved on since then.

Most importantly, back in 2011 genera such as Aloidendron, Aloiampelos, etc were merely twinkles in their authors' eyes.

esp wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 9:44 pm

Herts Mike wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 5:28 pm I have sakharensis which I have flowered but currently struggling with and 2 citreas that are going well.

I've still got 3 sakarahensis doing OK, the largest is in flower currently. It's even offsetting! Apparently they don't do that...
They live on warm to cool windowsills with some sun.
As for fleshy berries, well, everything is relative! Fleshier and more berry like than typical Aloe pods, and they take forever to finally dry out, but blueberries they ain't!

Yep you're right, A. zombitsiensis (aka A. sakarahensis) is apparently described as solitary.

Warm to cool windowsill plus sun sounds good to me.

Any chance of a pic of the flowering plant please?

Fleshy (ok fleshier!) berries are crucial here. These contrast with most aloes which have capsules that dry and split at maturity. I'll confess that I've never flowered a lomatophyllum let alone had seed set on one. I have observed a couple of species in fruit though, but not very closely.

ralphrmartin wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 9:53 pm Colin,

my A. sakharaensis is currently producing some berries, so if you would like some when ripe, let me know. They are full of extremely sticky gloop, like misteltoe, and I'd guess the seed is dispersed in the same way.

I'm also growing A. citrea, courtesy of Mike, but it has yet to flower.

Ralph

Yes please Ralph to some fruits. I'm no expert at seed raising so I'm guessing that presumably the "sticky gloop" will need to be washed away before sowing - correct? This "sticky gloop" shows how different these fruits are compared to the dry capsules of most aloes.

BTW, I meant to point out that A. mayottensis, even though it is endemic to Mayotte Island and NOT Madagascar, it's illustrated in the following book:

Castillon, J.-B. & Castillon, J.-P. Les Aloe de Madagascar/ The Aloe of Madagascar. (2010)

So not only does the title give the totally misleading impression that there's only one Aloe on Madagascar, it's also unrepresentative of the coverage because it also includes ALL the Indian Ocean Island species.
Again another example where self publishing without editorial input was not a good idea. Sorry, this is one of my hobby horses.