Aloe commixtaThis small aloe with a sprawling growth habit comes from Cape Peninsula (the top of the

Aloe commixta

This small aloe with a sprawling growth habit comes from Cape Peninsula (the top of the peninsula is Table Mountain and Cape Town, while the bottom is the Cape of Good Hope). This is squarely in the winter-rainfall zone, and it might be expected that plants from there would do well in California, since the climate is similar. But for some reason this aloe is very uncommon in cultivation, and we planted it out in the Ruth Bancroft Garden only last year. This is the first time it has flowered, and we are pleased to see that the flowers are bright yellow (the species ranges from yellow to red-orange). Along with its relatives such as Aloe ciliaris and Aloe striatula, this plant has been recently put into a new genus, Aloiampelos, but this classification is not at this point universally accepted, so we are still calling it Aloe commixta.

-Brian