Aloe candelabrum A.Berger
Creators: name: Smith, Gideon F.
name: Klopper, Ronell R.
name: Crouch, Neil R.
name: Figueiredo, Estrela
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Liliopsida
Asparagales
Asphodelaceae
Aloe
Aloe candelabrum

description: <b> Differences between mature specimens of <i>Aloe candelabrum</i> and <i>Aloe ferox</i></b> <i>Aloe candelabrum</i> is characterised by its tall [2–4(–8)m high], erect, unbranched stem covered in a ‘beard’ of persistent, dried leaves, with a terminal rosette of long (<i>ca</i>. 100 × 15cm), spreading to often recurved, deeply channelled leaves (Figure 1) that sometimes bear a few scattered spines on the lower surface, especially at the tip of the keel. The reddish to reddish-brown marginal teeth are pungent and <i>ca.</i> 3mm long (Figure 2). The candelabrum-like inflorescence is 5- to 12- branched with erect, very dense, cylindrical, slightly acuminate racemes 50–80cm long, with the terminal raceme sometimes slightly longer than the lateral ones (Figures 1 and 3). Flowers are scarlet, sometimes rose-pink, orange-red (Figure 4) to orange (Figure 5), and <i>ca.</i> 32mm long, always with white inner segment tips (Figures 4 and 5) (Table 1). Very rarely they are white (Figure 6). 59 . <b>Figure 8.</b> Pungent reddish-brown spines along the leaf margins of <i>Aloe ferox</i>, Nieu Bethesda, Eastern Cape province. Photograph: Neil R. Crouch. In the eastern parts of the Eastern Cape province and southern parts of KwaZulu-Natal, and from the Mtamvuna valley through to Ixopo, <i>Aloe candelabrum</i> and <i>A. ferox</i> seemingly intergrade. This is evidenced by some populations having plants with more erect leaves (Figures 12 and 13) or slightly recurved ones (Figure 14), and <i>A.</i> <i>ferox</i> -like spines along both leaf margins and undersides (Figure 15). We speculate that it is on this basis that Jeppe (1969) considered <i>A. ferox</i> to occur from south of Ixopo. However, within this southern KwaZulu-Natal region white perianth apices are always evident, an observation also noted by Viljoen <i>et al</i>. (1996). Where the distribution ranges of related <i>Aloe</i> species meet, such intergradations are not uncommon, as noted for <i>A.</i> <i>spectabilis</i> (Klopper &amp; Smith, 2010). In <i>Aloe candelabrum</i> the teeth on the leamargins are quite short and stout, about 3mm long, and spaced 15–20mm apart (Figure 2), while in <i>A.</i> <i>ferox</i> the teeth are generally larger and more prominent, up 6mm long, and often more closely spaced at 10–20mm distant (Figure 8). <b> Geographical distribution ranges of <i>Aloe</i></b> <b> <i>candelabrum</i> and <i>Aloe ferox</i></b> Both species are confined to either southern Africa (<i>Aloe ferox</i>) or South Africa (<i>Aloe candelabrum</i>), with <i>Aloe ferox</i> predominating in the Western and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa, extending northwestwards into the Free State province, as well as southern Lesotho. It does not occur in KwaZulu-Natal, and no specimens are known from the Northern Cape province, even though it occurs close by the juncture of that territory with both the Western and Eastern Cape provinces (Figure 16). <i>Aloe candelabrum</i>, on the other hand, is confined to southeast-central KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where it is more or less restricted to the northern and western aspects of valleys of all river systems from the Mtamvuna northwards to the Mngeni. This species in its typical form is a particularly prominent component of the landscape of the Mkomazi River system, and those to the north. The entire distribution range of <i>Aloe</i> <i>candelabrum</i> falls within the Maputoland-Pondoland Region of Endemism on the eastern seaboard of South Africa (Van Wyk &amp; Smith, 2001). Along the actual KwaZulu-Natal coastline, <i>Aloe candelabrum</i> is replaced by <i>Aloe thraskii</i> Baker, which is also a robust, tall-stemmed species, albeit with shorter, more dense inflorescences. Within the range of <i>A. ferox</i> in the Eastern Cape, from north of Port Elizabeth to near Humansdorp, <i>Aloe africana</i> Mill. occupies a comparable niche in the littoral zone. However, unlike <i>A. thraskii</i>, <i>A. africana</i> also occurs at locations in the interior (see maps in Van Wyk &amp; Smith, 2014: 52 [<i>A. africana</i>] and 80 [<i>A. thraskii</i>]). A single specimen known to us (<i>A.T.D. Abbott 7003</i> [NH]) locates a tree-like aloe with white tepal tips in the extreme north of the Eastern Cape province, near Mbizana, on a ridge above the Mtamvuna River at an altitude of 640m. The colony from which the specimen (comprising a raceme branch only) was gathered in 1996 was recorded as a mixture of orange, red and whiteflowered plants. As the original collecting label indicates that the flowers were from a white-flowering plant, we are unable to determine whether this material represents <i>A. ferox</i> or <i>A. candelabrum</i>. Until the colony is revisited and assessed, we deem <i>A. candelabrum</i> to be documented only from KwaZulu-Natal province; it is though highly likely to occur to the immediate south in Eastern Cape province. Albinistic blooms such as those noted at Mbizana are seldom reported for <i>A. candelabrum</i>, but have been observed both at Izingolweni and Ashburton (Figures 6 and 17), in the south and the northwest of its range, respectively.
description: Published as part of <i>Smith, Gideon F., Klopper, Ronell R., Crouch, Neil R. &amp; Figueiredo, Estrela, 2016, Reinstatement of Aloe candelabrum A. Berger (Asphodelaceae: Alooideae), a tree-like aloe of KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, pp. 59-69 in Bradleya 34</i> on pages 59-65, DOI: 10.25223/brad.n34.2016.a21, http://zenodo.org/record/7864084
description: {"references": ["REYNOLDS, G. W. (1950). The aloes of South Africa. The Aloes of South Africa Book Fund, Johannesburg.", "VILJOEN, A. V., VAN WYK, B-E., VAN DER BANK, H., SMITH, G. F. &amp; VAN DER BANK, M. (1996). A chemotaxonomic and biochemical evaluation of the identity of Aloe candelabrum (Aloaceae). Taxon 45: 461 - 471.", "JEPPE, B. (1969). South African aloes. Purnell &amp; Sons S. A. (Pty) Ltd, Cape Town.", "KLOPPER, R. R. &amp; SMITH, G. F. (2010). Notes on African plants. Asphodelaceae: Alooideae. Reinstatement of Aloe spectabilis. Bothalia 40: 91 - 93.", "VAN WYK, B-E. [BEN-ERIK] &amp; SMITH, G. F. (2014). Guide to the aloes of South Africa. 3 rd edition. Briza Publications, Queenswood, Pretoria."]}