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Aloe greenii (Icena) A stemless suckering plant that can form large dense groups of dense rosettes fairly rapidly, each with up to 20 narrow lance-shaped slightly recurved leaves that are 16 to 20 inches long by 3 inches wide at the base. The leaves are a bright green with greenish-white oblong spots in irregular transverse bands on both surfaces and with pinkish-brown teeth but when grown in sun the green portions turn an attractive deep brown. In late summer into fall, often timed right at the autumn equinox, appear the upright 3- to 4-foot-tall branching inflorescences bearing dusky-pink flowers subtended by ½ inch long papery bracts.
Plant in light shade to full sun along the coast and irrigate occasionally to infrequently - tolerates and grows more rapidly with regular irrigation but can also be grown well with only occasional to infrequent irrigation and is cold hardy to around the mid 20's° F - though from a habitat that rarely sees a frost this plant has weathered temperatures down to 25° F in cultivation without damage.
Aloe greenii was first described from cultivated material in England so there is not a known type locality but it inhabits areas from the Khosi Bay area of KwaZulu-Natal north to southern Mozambique where it is found growing in dry stony soils in the subtropical thorny forest understory from sea level to about 3,300 feet in elevation. It is similar to another maculate (spotted) aloe, Aloe pruinosa, which is larger and more solitary and blooms earlier, in mid to late summer, with pinker flowers that are covered in a greyish-white powdery bloom. Aloe greenii was named in 1880 to honor some mysterious person named C.G. or G.H. Green by John Gilbert Baker, who worked as Joseph Hooker's assistant in the Kew herbarium. The plant was described from living material given to Baker by British nurseryman Wilson Saunders, who had been sent the plants by a Mr. T. Cooper in South Africa. The Zulu common name for it is Icena, a name it shares with other spotted aloes, including Aloe mudenensis.
We grew and sold this aloe continuously from 2013, after we got our first stock plants in the late 1990s unnamed from the somewhat similarly named John Greenlee, who had planted it on the Malibu property where he was growing his meadow grass collection at the time. We also thank Brian Kemble at the Ruth Bancroft garden for helping us to later identifying it.
Information displayed on this page about Aloe greenii 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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