Aloiampelos tenuior
| Aloiampelos tenuior | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Asphodelaceae |
| Subfamily: | Asphodeloideae |
| Tribe: | Aloeae |
| Genus: | Aloiampelos |
| Species: | A. tenuior |
| Binomial name | |
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Aloiampelos tenuior (Haw.) Klopper & Gideon F.Sm. |
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| range in turquoise | |
| Synonyms | |
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Aloiampelos tenuior, formerly Aloe tenuior, the fence aloe, is a bushy, multi-branched succulent plant from the grasslands and thickets of the Eastern Cape, Kwazulu Natal and Mpumalanga, South Africa. It is one of the most profusely flowering of all aloes and their relatives.
Locally, this plant is known as iKhalene in Xhosa, inTelezi in Fengu, and simply the fence aloe in English. The specific epithet tenuior means "very slender", and refers to the plant's stems.
A medium-sized, bushy plant that forms clumps up to 3 m tall, with leaves tufted at the ends of branches. The leaves have a distinctive greyish-green colour and the leaf margins have tiny white teeth. These leaves are a traditional remedy for tapeworm.
An unusually large, woody rootstock usually forms on the ground at the base of the plant.
Like all species in the genus, flowers are borne on slender racemes and are usually bright yellow (although there are red-flowered forms, sometimes called var. rubriflora).
Aloiampelos tenuior flowers throughout the year, but especially in winter, and the small flowers appear on thin, un-branched racemes.
Aloiampelos tenuior is an extremely variable species. The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) does not recognize any varieties, treating them all as synonyms of the species. Varieties recognized by some sources include:
The most common colour form
The rare "dense-flowered" form (sometimes called var. densiflora)
The rare "red-flowered" form (sometimes called var. rubriflora)
The rare "green-leafed" variety (var. viridifolia)
Aloiampelos tenuior is part of a genus including Aloiampelos gracilis (which occurs to the west around Port Elizabeth), Aloiampelos striatula (found to the north on the higher mountain slopes), and Aloiampelos decumbens, Aloiampelos juddii and Aloiampelos commixta which occur only in isolated pockets in the Western Cape fynbos. However, it can be distinguished from its relatives by its thin, greyish, non-recurved leaves.
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Wikipedia