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Aloe pillansii

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Cornel's Kopf, north-western South Africa.


One of two seedlings I was able to find in the area.

Author: Louise Guthrie, 1928
Family:  ALOACEAE*
Origin:  North-Western South Africa, Southerns Namibia
Soil:  Mix
Water:  Minimum
Sun:  Maximum
Thickness:  90 Centimetres
Height:  10 Meters
Flower:  Yellow
Propagate:  Seeds/Cuttings
Names:  Bastard Quiver Tree
Synonyms:  Might be: Aloidendron pillansii, Klopper & Gideon F.Sm. 2013.
Aloe dichotoma subsp. pillansii Louise Guthrie &  Bernardus Joannes Maria Zonneveld, 2002**.

This big member of the Aloaceae* family was given this name by Louise Guthrie in 1928. It is found from Cornel's Kopf, north-western South Africa to Brandberg in Namibia, growing in a well drained soil with little water and lots of sun. The stem can grow up to a meter in diameter, and raise to ten meters or more. The flowers are yellow.

The genera name is the ancient Greek and Latin name. The species name after Neville S. Pillans, the botanist who first collected it. 

**) The different between A. dichotoma and A. pillansii, besides from the oblivious different in adult appearance and the way the flowers grow, is the colour of the edges of the leaves. A. dichotoma have yellow thorns while A. pillansii's thorns are white. The flowers of  A. pillansii is rather hanging while A. dichotoma's grow upwards. How exactly Louise Guthrie and Bernardus Joannes Maria Zonneveld can claim it is the same species still remains to be explained to me!

')Accordantly to the latest taxonomic system; APG IV 2016,  Aloaceae is now part of the Asphodelaceae.

As this series shows: They are getting more and more scares:

1950.


1995.


2005, when I visited them.