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| Category: Succulent |
| Family: Aloeaceae (now Asphodeloideae) |
| Origin: Ethiopia (Africa) |
| Evergreen: Yes |
| Flower Color: Coral |
| Bloomtime: Winter/Spring |
| Synonyms: [Aloe eru, A. abbysinica, Lam.] |
| Height: 2-3 feet |
| Width: Spreading |
| Exposure: Full Sun |
| Irrigation (H2O Info): Low Water Needs |
| Winter Hardiness: 20-25° F |
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Aloe camperi (Nubian Aloe) A colony forming aloe that suckers or branches near the base with individual rosettes reaching nearly 2 feet tall and wide with narrow light green leaves that are flat on the upper surface and angle upwards then arch over towards the tips with sharp spines along the margins. This plant reliably produces 3 foot tall branched inflorescences with an abundance of salmon-orange buds that open to apricot-yellow flowers from the bottom up in late spring that are broadest near the tips - ours is spectacular in May and lingering into June. Plant in full sun and irrigate little to occasionally. Hardy to mid 20's F - no damage observed on our plants at 25° F in the January 2007 cold spell but plants were noted as damaged at temperatures in the low 20's by Brian Kemble at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Grove. This great landscape plant is very showy in full bloom and has been in cultivation in California for many years under the name Aloe eru. The late spring flowering of this plant distinguishes it from many other species that tend to bloom winter into spring or later in the fall. We also grow a yellow flowering form we call Aloe camperi 'Yellow' and there is a more robust form that flowers earlier (March) that has long been grown at the Huntington Botanic Garden (HBG#92) and was distributed as an International Succulent Introduction as Aloe camperi 'Cornuta' (ISI -2005-15). Aloe camperi is from Eretria in northeastern Africa south to Ethiopia at elevations ranging from 4,600 feet to 8,300 feet and was first described using this name in 1891 by Georg Schweinfurth, a German who lived in Riga in the Baltic Provinces of Russia, from a plant collected at about 4,600 feet in the Great Valley above Ghinda in Eritrea. It had been discovered in habitat prior to this time at least by 1817 by German botanist and horticulturist, Prince Joseph Salm-Reifferscheid-Dyck, who described it as Aloe abbysinica, Lam., having been described as such by Lamarck in 1783 from a plant that explorer James Bruce had collected while traveling from Eritrea on the Red Sea to the Nile and north to Cairo, though the location of collection was never noted. Further confusion on the name of this plant was caused by the naming of this species as Aloe Eru by Alwin Berger in his "Das Pflanzenreich" and this name is still often used for this plant. Schweinfurth named Aloe camperi for his friend Manfedo Camperio, an Italian born resident of Eritrea. It has been called Nubian Aloe in literature, though most references do not indicate that it naturally inhabits the range of the Nubian people in southern Egypt or Sudan but a collection made in Sudan (between Suakin and Berber) by Schweinfurth in 1868 is on record at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. From this same trip Schweinfurth wrote in his journals "What a prospect! How gay with its variety of hue, green, red and yellow! Nothing could be more pleasant than the shade of the acacia, nothing more striking than the abundance of bloom of the Abyssinian aloe, transforming the dreary sand beds into smiling gardens." With such confusion existing between Aloe abbyssinca and A. camperi and, because Schweinfurth traveled from Eritrea through Egypt, it is not clear which aloe Schweinfurth is referring to in this statement but it very well could have been Aloe camperi., which is sometimes marketed as "The Popcorn Aloe" because of its more open apricot-yellow flowers that get described as being "puffy".
The information about Aloe camperi 'Cornuta' displayed on this page is based on research conducted in our nursery library and from online sources we consider reliable. We will also relate those observations made of this plant as it grows in our nursery gardens and in other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has additional information, particularly when they share cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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