PlantFiles: Bottlebrush Aloe
Aloe rupestris

I got this as a specimen from a well-documented collection of rare and unusual aloes. I am currently treating the plant for aloe mites (aloe cancer) and it seems to be responding.

The plant is robust and vigorous. It uptakes as much water as I get to it. It is closest to the sprinkler head and so it gets the most of any Aloe in the gardens.

I was told by an authoritative Aloe expert that until a few years ago there was one clone of A. rupestris in the USA, and it was widely propagated by offsets. 2 other trees in our gardens seem to be this "clustering Aloe". They are not nearly as vigorous as the single-stemmed A. rupestris.

I recently got 2 small seedlings of the A. rupestris from IAS. I look forward to their maturity and observation of their growth form.

bob
:>).

This is reportedly one of the fastest tree aloes, so if you want a spectacular flowering tree aloe and can only get seed, this is the one you want they say. However, I certainly have not had that experience. In fact, of the tree aloes, this is a slow grower. I am not sure if the Aloe rupestris grown in this country is the same A rupestris growing in S Africa. That A rupestris is nearly always a solitary stemmed aloe, yet plants here in the US are nealy always suckering. I suspect there is someone else in the US A rupestris gene pool. The US A rupestris spends too much time and energy making pups to be a fast grower. Ends up being a huge mess of plants, which, if you want a nice landscape specimen, will need some trimming up at some point. It's a S African species where it is reknown for its rate of growth. The flowers are very showy with yellows, oranges, and light reds. At least the flowers on the US plant look the same, so our plants are 'mostly' A rupestris.

This is one of the hardier large zone 9b Aloes... could even be a zone 9a? Temps in the mid 20s did no damage to these plants in southern California (even seedlings were undamaged).