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Aloe munchii (Large Chimanimani Aloe) - A moderately fast growing small tree aloe that grows upwards to 15 feet tall. It is most often solitary but occasionally seen branching from the base with blue-green upright 20 inch long leaves that recurved slightly toward the tips and can turn and yellow orange in winter. The fall to early winter flowers are held on a 2 to 3 branched inflorescence that rises 1 to 2 feet above the foliage - the flowers are a deep orange and held in tight capitate clusters with the tips of the flower buds slightly upturned and having a purplish cast.
Plant in full sun win a well-drained soil. We have had this plant out and undamaged at 27 °F and others note it hardy to 25 °F. This is a great landscape small tree aloe with unique flowers for planting in Southern California gardens.
Aloe munchii is allied with the more southerly Aloe arborescens and comes from both sides of the Chimanimani Mountains which defines the border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique where it grows in and around quartzite rocky outcrops at an altitude between 5,000 and 7,000 feet. It is named by Hugh Basil Christian in 1950 for Raymond Charles Munch (1901 - 1985), a farmer and aloe and cycad plant collector from Rusape, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Munch and his wife Hazel O. Munch (honored in the naming of Aloe hazeliana) explored and botanized southern and central Africa. We first became enamored by this plant when seeing it blooming at Tom Cole's Cold Spring Aloes. Our original stock plants from John Miller of the Institute of Aloe Studies in 2008 as Aloe munchii IAS 08-019.
The information displayed on this page about Aloe munchii is based on the research we have conducted about it in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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