Aloe polyphylla

Aloe polyphylla
Date: 2004 May 26

The "spiral Aloe of Lesotho". This is one of those plants that I had wanted to grow, but had never seen cultivated plants for sale. In late 1996, I obtained some seed from plants in cultivation in California. They germinated and grew well, and the frequent suggestions that this plant is difficult to grow appear to be unfounded.

From reading about conditions in the plant's African habitat, it seemed that at times it receives plenty water, and also is subjected to (possibly freezing) cold. The conditions in England seem to suit it, and for some years now, I have kept the plants outdoors. My plants have been protected from rain in Winter, but a friend to whom I gave some had left one of them unprotected outside, without any ill effects.

I sold quite a lot of my seedling plants back in 1997 and subsequently, and have sometimes seem them since being kept in a small pot in a hot greenhouse, watered infrequently. They don't die if you do this, but they don't grow much either!

The friend who I gave some plants to first got a flower in 2002 or 2003, which is around 6 years from seed - a much shorter time than I have sometimes read.

I kept 4 of the plants myself (they get rather large - I haven't got room for more!), and it was 2004 before one of these first flowered, as shown here. The rosette is around 50cm in diameter.

Date: 2004 June 2

The flower spike developed rapidly. You can see that in this case, the flower stem branched into 4. My friend's two plants (a little larger, probably due to being grown in larger containers, and with more water and richer soil) also flowered in 2004, and had larger inflorescences with more branches.

Date: 2004 June 9

The first flowers soon started to open. Each flower only lasts a few days, and appeared to be 'protandrous' (pollen ready before sigma receptive). Many trips were made carrying pollen between my plant and my friend's two plants, as it appears that the plants are usually unable to set seed unless corss-pollinated. The plant's pollinator in habitat is said to be the Malachite Sunbird - I don't know if anything is likely to pollinate the plant in England, but I was pretty sure that it wasn't going to make the 5 mile trip between the plants, so human-intervention was needed!

Date: 2004 July 4

As you can see, pollination appears to have been successful. I hope that these capsules ripen and contain viable seed.

The capsules eventually split open. Having arrived back at seed again, after starting with seed 8 years ago, I truly consider myself to have 'grown' this species. The seeds measure around 8 x 3mm, including their papery 'wings'.

Aloe polyphylla - the next generation!
Date: 2005 February 27

I sowed some of the seed on 2005 January 16, and saw the first signs of germination 4 days later. As typical monocotyledons, the seedlings initially produce a single leaf (the one on the right in this photo). They grow quite quickly, and here six weeks since sowing, the 3rd leaf is starting to appear. The seedling measures 25mm from leaf-tip to leaf-tip. The first leaves are produced alternately opposite each other, and not until around the 7th leaf is the symmetry broken, and the spiral arrangement (equally likely one way or the other) starts to develop.