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Aloe bussei - An attractive low growing plant that suckers to produce a cluster of compact rosettes of 8 to 12 inch long ovate-lanceolate glossy green leaves that are erect then spreading and blush a vivid pink to coppery-red color in winter months. In later summer into fall appear the simple or branched 16- to 30-inch-tall slender inflorescences bearing tubular dark coral-red colored flowers that are perpendicular to the flowering stem in bud and pendant as the flowers open.
Plant in full sun in a well-drained soil with only occasional to infrequent irrigation to promote the best flowering. Hardy to around 25°F.
Aloe bussei is similar and closely related to Aloe dorotheae, from which it primarily differs in having a multiple (1 to 4 times) branched inflorescence. It also grows on rocky outcrops and cliffs in the Mpwapwa District of Tanzania, while Aloe dorotheae is found about 180 miles to the west along the coast of Tanzania in the Pangani District. Aloe bussei was initially described by the German botanist Alwin Berger in 1908 but the type specimen was only a single piece of a fruiting inflorescence and even Berger described it as "imperfectly known". In 1940 a plant was described as Aloe morogoroensis by Rhodesian botanist Harold Basil Christian from the same location. In Kew botanist Susan Carter's 1994 treatment in Flora of Tropical East Africa - Aloaceae she synonymized these two names under the older name, Aloe bussei. The specific epithet honors Walter Busse, a German agricultural officer in Tanzania at the beginning of the 20th century.
This plant was introduced in 2018 by the Huntington Botanic Garden in their International Succulent Introduction Program as ISI 2018-6 Aloe bussei and was produced at the garden's micro-propagation (tissue culture) laboratory from material taken from the Huntington Botanic Garden's accession HBG 18918 that was originally plant collected by Gilbert Westcott Reynolds in April, 1957 at the type locality. The images on this page are courtesy of the Huntington Botanic Garden.
Information displayed on this page about Aloe bussei 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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