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Aloe pseudorubroviolacea (Arabian Aloe) A beautiful plant with 2-foot-wide rosettes of thick, blue-green leaves that emerge from heavy stems and 3- to four-foot-tall inflorescences of orange-red flowers late winter into spring. Over time the stems elongate with a few shoots emerging at their base, forming open sprawling clumps to 12 feet wide by 3 feet tall - if planted on a slope will tend to spread downhill. In winter, the foliage takes on pink tones much like called Aloe rubroviolacea, which we also grow, but this species differs in having larger rosettes that produce fewer offsets and its more heavily branched inflorescences appear later. Aloe rubroviolacea, often with an unbranched or once-branched inflorescence, begins flowering in late fall and continues into winter whereas this species, usually with a many-branched inflorescence, starts flowering in late winter and continues into early spring in habitat, but in California we find it to bloom even later, often into summer. Both species have 1-inch-long waxy orange-red flowers but for this species the flowers are more dramatically compressed downward along the inflorescence branch. This plant is also closely related to Aloe porphyrostachys.
Plant in full sun in a well-drained soil - in its natural habitat this plant grows pendant or semi-pendant on steep slopes but can tolerate level ground if soil is well draining. We have not tested this plant to colder temperatures, but it is reportedly hardy down to 25° F. Protect from snails which can disfigure the attractive leaves.
Aloe pseudorubroviolacea is restricted to high mountains and cliff faces between 6000 to 7000 feet in elevation that overlook the coastal plain of the Red Sea in the provinces of Hijaz and Asir of Saudi Arabia from near the border with Yemen to north of Yanbu al-Bahr. It was first described by John Lavranos & I.S. (Sheila) Collenette in 2000 in the Cactus and Succulent Society of America Journal 72(1) and is described in "Aloes: The Definitive Guide" (Kew Publishing, 2011) as "undoubtedly the most spectacular of Arabian aloes".
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. This plants specific epithet comes from the Greek word Greek 'pseudo' meaning false combined with the specific epithet of another similar Arabian Aloe whose name 'rubraviolacea' means "red-violet" so in a sense the epithet means False Aloe rubroviolacea. We first sold this very nice aloe in 2013 from plants originally received from Tim Gregory.
This information about Aloe pseudorubroviolacea displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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