''Gonialoe dinteri'', the Namibian partridge aloe, is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

in the

Asphodelaceae Asphodelaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Asparagales. Such a family has been recognized by most taxonomists, but the circumscription has varied widely. In its current circumscription in the APG IV system, it includes abo ...

family. It is native to arid areas of

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

and

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and e ...

Description

The plants form stemless rosettes of up to 30 cm wide. Smaller suckers sometimes offshoot from the main stem. The long sharp, triangular leaves are dark brownish green with white linear spots and cartilaginous margins. Tall, very thin multi-branched

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed ...

s appear from January to March, with small sparse pale pink and sometimes bluish flowers. It is named after German botanist

Kurt Dinter Moritz Kurt Dinter (10 June 1868 – 16 December 1945) was a German botanist and explorer in South West Africa. Education and career Dinter was born in Bautzen, where he attended the Realschule. Having completed his military service and joi ...

. Taxonomically, it was formerly part of the ''Serrulatae'' series of three very closely related '' Aloe'' species, together with ''

Gonialoe variegata ''Gonialoe variegata'' (syn. ''Aloe variegata''), also known as tiger aloe and partridge-breasted aloe, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asphodelaceae. It is an evergreen succulent perennial indigenous to South Africa and Namibi ...

'' and ''

Gonialoe sladeniana ''Gonialoe sladeniana'' is a species of plant in the genus ''Gonialoe''. It is endemic to arid areas of central Namibia. Description The small, stemless rosettes produce suckers that offshoot from the root, which can eventually form dense clump ...

''. Recent phylogenetic studies have shown these three species to constitute an entirely separate genus, what was published under the name ''

Gonialoe ''Gonialoe'' (the partridge aloes) is a small genus of three succulent plant species, indigenous to South Africa, Namibia and Angola. They were formerly included within the related genus ''Aloe''. The three species are ''Gonialoe variegata, Gonia ...

''. While this species looks rather similar to its two sister species, it can be distinguished from ''

'' by its longer leaves which curve downwards, and it can be distinguished from ''

'' by its large size, taller thinner sparser inflorescence, and the spots on its leaves being more linear, almost to the point of being stripes. The bracts of ''G.dinteri'' are 3 nerved, unlike its sister species which are 1 nerved. ''G.dinteri'' also has an unusually large root stock; its roots form a far larger percentage of its body weight than all the rest of the plant put together.

Distribution

''Gonialoe dinteri'' is found in sparse populations across a large arid area of Namibia and around the verges of the Namib desert. It usually occurs in deep cracks in limestone or granite rock, or growing under scrub. It is listed in the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

under the species synonym ''Aloe dinteri''. What little rain there is in this area, tends to fall in the summer. Towards the south, as the climate gradually gives way to a winter-rainfall climate, ''Gonialoe dinteri'' is replaced by ''

'' which inhabits the central intermediate zone, and finally by ''

'' even further south where winter-rainfall climate predominates.

Cultivation

This species can be grown in cultivation, but needs dry conditions and very well-drained porous soil. It is relatively cold-hardy, due to the low nighttime temperatures of its desert habitat. Reynolds, G.W. 1950. ''The aloes of Southern Africa.'' Balkema, Cape Town.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q63663505, from2=Q140938 dinteri Flora of Angola Flora of Namibia Least concern plants Least concern biota of Africa Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Alwin Berger Taxa named by John Charles Manning Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN