''Gonialoe variegata'' ( syn. ''Aloe variegata''), also known as tiger aloe and partridge-breasted aloe, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Asphodelaceae. It is an

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

succulent In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

indigenous to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. It is common in cultivation.

Description

Plants grow to around with 18–24

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

arranged in three ranks. New leaves appear individually over time from the centre of the plant, flattening older leaves and pushing them outward in a spiral fashion. Each leaf is a rich green colour with irregular light green banding made up of amalgamated, slightly raised oval spots, and similarly light coloured fine serrations along each edge. In mature plants the outer, and thus oldest, leaves are long and approximately broad at the base. Depending on trauma, space, water availability or even old age, outer leaves will die off, turning golden brown and shriveling away. Plants reach maturity in three to seven years, again largely dependent on the space, sunlight and water available, at which point they will begin to send out

raceme A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...

s of flowers. Flowers develop in a cluster at the head of the raceme and are spaced out by its rapid elongation. Aloe variegata00

The

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s are orange, arranged in a

of around in height. In its natural habitat in southern Africa, flowers are produced from July to September, with offsets being readily formed.

Cultivation

In temperate regions it can be grown outdoors during the summer months. However it does not tolerate cold below or wet conditions, and requires the protection of glass in winter. In cultivation in the UK this plant gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. It includes the full range of cultivated p ...

in 1993.

Taxonomy

''G. variegata'' was formerly part of the ''Serrulatae'' series of very closely related ''

Aloe ''Aloe'' (; also written ''Aloë'') is a genus containing over 650 species of flowering plant, flowering succulent plant, succulent plants.WFO (2022): Aloe L. Published on the Internet;http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-4000001341. Acc ...

'' species, together with '' Aloe dinteri'' and '' Aloe sladeniana''. Recent phylogenetic studies have shown these three species to possibly constitute an entirely separate genus, with the name ''

Gonialoe ''Gonialoe'' (the partridge aloes) is a small genus of three succulent plant species—''Gonialoe dinteri, Gonialoe sladeniana and Gonialoe variegata''—Endemism, endemic to coastal South Africa, Namibia and Angola. They were formerly included w ...

''. While this species looks rather similar to its two sister species, it can easily be distinguished from them by its shorter, stouter inflorescence with larger pink flowers.

Distribution and habitat

1 Gonialoe species - Aloe variegata sladeniana dinteri distribution map

The tiger aloe is indigenous to the arid

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is ...

region of

southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

. In South Africa, it is found in the dry areas of the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

Northern Cape The Northern Cape ( ; ; ) is the largest and most sparsely populated Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley, South Africa, Kimberley. It includes ...

and Free State. It generally grows in rocky terrain and outcrops where they may grow between boulders, but may also grow in soils with sharp drainage, such as sandy soils. It is usually found in the semi-shade shelter of either rock crevices or shrubs, which provide some protection from the sun. This species predominates in winter-rainfall areas. To the north, as the climate gradually changes to a summer rainfall one, this species is replaced by its sister species ''

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 clumps ...

'' (in the intermediate rainfall region) which then gradually makes way for ''

Gonialoe dinteri ''Gonialoe dinteri'', the Namibian partridge aloe, is a species of flowering plant in the Asphodelaceae family. It is native to arid areas of Angola and Namibia. Description The plants form stemless rosettes of up to 30 cm wide. Smaller ...

'' in the summer rainfall areas of far northern

History

The first record of this species was an account in the diary of

Simon van der Stel Simon van der Stel (14 October 1639 – 24 June 1712) was the first Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony (1691), the settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. He was interested in botany, establishing vineyards Groot Constantia, Groot and Klein C ...

(the first Governor of the Cape), when he travelled in 1685 to

Namaqualand Namaqualand ( Khoikhoi: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoi people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River int ...

in the Northern Cape. In addition, this was one of the species cultivated in the Dutch East India Company's garden in Cape Town in 1695.

Ecology

Since ''Aloe'' flowers are usually reddish in colour,

sunbird Sunbirds and spiderhunters make up the family Nectariniidae of passerine birds. They are small, slender passerines from the Old World, usually with downward-curved bills. Many are brightly coloured, often with iridescent feathers, particularly i ...

s are attracted to them for the nectar they produce, and are likely the plant's main

pollinator A pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female carpel, stigma of a flower. This helps to bring about fertilization of the ovules in the flower by the male gametes from the pollen grains. Insects are ...

s. Other creatures which visit flowers are usually insects such as

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder ...

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

s and

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

s.Leistner, O.A. (2005) ''Seed plants of southern tropical Africa'' Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 26.

References

External links

Succulents.co.za: ''Aloe variegata''
{{taxonbar, from1=Q39719922, from2=Q159136 variegata Flora of the Cape Provinces Flora of the Free State Flora of Namibia Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus