Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

Fig. 25. Aloe eumassa wa na, from Arkiko (Hargigo), Massawa, Eritrea
Habitat and
distribution
Notes
Aloe scholleri
ALOE
59
In the wild, the species is known from a small area of
coastal bushland with succulent euphorbias and cacti on
sandy soil near sea level at Arkiko in the Massawa area,
and on the adjacent Dahlak Islands of Eritrea. It is also
recently found occuring in Djibouti. The main flowering
pe riod is from November to March.
The species was previously known by the name A.
massawana which was described by Reynolds in 1959
based on Tanzanian material. Reynolds believed the
Tanzanian plants were introduced from the Red Sea coast
of Eritrea.
6. Aloe schoelleri Schweinfurth
The specific epithet ‘schoelleri’ probably refers to
Mr. Max Schoeller, an explorer who accompanied G.
Schweinfurth on a trip to Eritrea in 1891. We assume
Schwein furth wanted to acknowledge and honour the
friendship by naming the species after him. The species
was described in 1894, with the type material collected
from the Ko haito Plateau in Eritrea.
This is a species with inadequate information about its
habit. It might be related to a small group of Ethiopian/