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Aloe marlothii (Mountain Aloe) - A unbranched large aloe that often grows to 10 feet tall with persistent old leaves making a skirt around the trunk and holding a heavy rosette of large thick gray-green leaves with reddish-brown spines along the margins and randomly on other parts of the leaf. In late fall to late winter appears the wide-spread branching inflorescence bearing light red-orange flowers.
Plant in full sun in a well-drained soil. Requires little to no supplemental irrigation in coastal California gardens and is cold hardy to 20° F. A beautiful specimen succulent in the garden that is attractive in and out of flower. Aloe marlothii can easily be distinguished from all other single-stemmed aloes by the horizontal (or at least slanted) branching of the inflorescence and the racemes with erect flowers.
Aloe marlothii is a wide-ranging species from KwaZulu-Natal into Moçambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana and throughout its range there is considerable variability in flower color and shape of the inflorescence. The name Aloe comes from ancient Greek name aloe that was derived from the Arabian word 'alloch' that was used to describe the plant or its juice that was used as medicine and the specific epithet commemorates the botanist H.W. Rudolf Marloth. Other common names often used for the Mountain Aloe include Spiny Aloe, Flat Flowered Aloe and the Africaner names Bergaalwyn and Boomaalwyn.
We have grown this great plant since 1993 with our plants grown from seed purchased from Silverhill Seeds in South Africa that were described as the typical form with horizontal inflorescence and dark orange flowers. We also grow a form that often has darker flowers which we list as Aloe marlothii "Utrecht form". It is similar to Aloe ferox, which grows futher to the south but has oblique wide spreading inflorescences, usually with flowers in the yellow-to-orange range, while Aloe ferox has inflorescences that are erect with flowers that are typically more in the red-to-orange range.
Information displayed on this page about Aloe marlothii is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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