Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

64 ALOACEAE
Description
Habitat and
distribution
Notes
Aloe ellenbeckii
The species is a member of the ‘sapo na ria’ group
(numbers 7–11). It is closely related to, if not identical
with, A. macro carpa. A. lateritia is vaguely distinguished
from A. macrocarpa by the larger vegetative and
inflorescence parts.
Closely related to A. macrocarpa, but rather larger. Leaves up
to 60 cm long with marginal teeth 8–10 per cm, 2–3 mm long;
inflorescence to 130 cm long; racemes lax to capitate; capsules
37–40 mm long.
The species grows in open deciduous bush land at about
1550 m in Sidamo floristic region. It is also known
from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Zaire. The
main flowering period in Ethiopia is from September to
November.
A. lateritia shows a very wide variation in the density of
the inflorescence, from rather lax racemes to dense heads.
Plants with capitate inflorescences have been proposed to
belong to a separate spe cies (A. graminicola), but the type
material of A. lateritia has similar dense inflorescences,
and there is a continuity of variation between the
extremes. Two subspecies have been recognized in
Tropical East Africa; only specimens referred to subsp.
graminicola occur in Ethiopia. The whole complex
including A. macrocarpa is taxo nomically difficult and
needs to be revised throughout the range from Ethiopia
to South Africa and from East to West Africa.
10. Aloe ellenbeckii Berger
The specific epithet ‘ellenbeckii’ is given in honour of
the German collector, Ellen beck from whose collection
the type of the species was designated. The species was
described in 1905, based on type material collected from
the area at the confluence of Dera and Juba Rivers in
Somalia in 1905. A. dumetorum, described by Mathew
and Brandham from Kenya, is conspecific with A. ellenbeckii.
A. ellenbeckii belongs to the ‘sapona ria’ group of
aloes (numbers 7–11) with spotted leaves and a basal
swelling of the perianth. It is distinguished from the rest
of the group by its narrowly linear­oblong leaves, up to
2.5 cm wide, and by the high density of short marginal