A very common plant often sold in the nursery trade as Aloe striata is actually a hybrid, likely between Aloe striata and Aloe maculata [syn A. saponaria] that is grown from open pollinated seed. Though there is considerable variability and other parents might be involved, these plants usually have light corral to darker orange flowers rising above freely pupping rosettes of lightly spotted leaves that have soft teeth along their margins. They are often very attractive and nice plants but should not be confused with the more solitary Aloe striata which has broad rose-tinged gray leaves with faint dark longitudinal stripes and dark pink toothless margins.

That this hybrid has long been in cultivation is evidenced by an article titled "Aloe Wild in California" by Reid Moran in the March-April 1992 issue of the Cactus and Succulent Journal that discusses and has pictures of a large naturalized population of this hybrid along the coastal bluff near Scripps Institute in La Jolla, California. It is noted that the first plants were planted by Scripps professor Francis Sumner in the early 1900s and that it has spread vegetatively to cover a large hillside which turns red with flowers in March and April.

We have grown Aloe striata since first offering it in our 1982 catalog. We do not sell this hybrid and our plants of Aloe striata are grown only from our own from seed that is collected from isolated plants maintained for such purpose on our nursery grounds. For nearly 30 years these plants have yielded seed that has consistently produced uniform plants of true Aloe striata.