Aloe Species

August 2006
Not much experience with the plant, as it is new in my collection.

September 16, 2008
After g...Read Morerowing and experience with 8 specimens of this subspecies A. lineata var. muirii, I have to say that I've not had the multistem pupping during juvenile development. It is one of the most beautiful of the landscape Aloes.

All 8 of them from tiny seedling to mature specimens have exhibited the same single-stemmed behavior as is shown in most of the specimens posted here, Even the Palm Bob-imaged specimens of Jan. 18 -2008 of single-headed specimen from my own collection show the typical single-headed nature of this subspecies .

All clones I have grown of the type-species form of Aloe lineata var. lineata exhibits the pupping phenom. These don't seem to ever grow out of the pupping habit and as such don't make an orderly formal growing specimen. (I've grown it off and on for over 20 years)

The subspecies of lineata variet muirii is in every instance that I have experienced (in the last 2 years) been the more desirable landscape plant.

This form starts as a smaller, clustering species that tends to form mounds of tight clumps of mostly distichous plants (not rosettes), o...Read Moreften pale yellow green, to light green in more shady conditions. Leaves of this variety are more yellowy than the blue-green Aloe lineata, and the marginal red teeth are supposed to be larger (and sharper it turns out!) and lineations more obvious. Eventually it becomes a larger stemmed aloe, but not for many years. Books list this, and the type species, as solitary plants primarily, but suckering forms exist. However, in my limited experience, this form is more often solitary in cultivation than is the type form. This form also has reddish lines in the leaves and has much stiffer leaves. These also bloom in winter, not summer.