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Aloe bussei - An attractive low growing plant that suckers to produce a cluster of compact rosettes of 8 to 12 inch long ovate-lanceolate glossy green leaves that are erect then spreading and blush a vivid pink to coppery-red color in winter months. In later summer into fall appear the simple or branched 16- to 30-inch-tall slender inflorescences bearing tubular dark coral-red colored flowers that are perpendicular to the flowering stem in bud and pendant as the flowers open.
Plant in full sun in a well-drained soil with only occasional to infrequent irrigation to promote the best flowering. Hardy to around 25°F.
Aloe bussei is similar and closely related to Aloe dorotheae, from which it primarily differs in having a multiple (1 to 4 times) branched inflorescence. It also grows on rocky outcrops and cliffs in the Mpwapwa District of Tanzania, while Aloe dorotheae is found about 180 miles to the west along the coast of Tanzania in the Pangani District. Aloe bussei was initially described by the German botanist Alwin Berger in 1908 but the type specimen was only a single piece of a fruiting inflorescence and even Berger described it as "imperfectly known". In 1940 a plant was described as Aloe morogoroensis by Rhodesian botanist Harold Basil Christian from the same location. In Kew botanist Susan Carter's 1994 treatment in Flora of Tropical East Africa - Aloaceae she synonymized these two names under the older name, Aloe bussei. The specific epithet honors Walter Busse, a German agricultural officer in Tanzania at the beginning of the 20th century.
This plant was introduced in 2018 by the Huntington Botanic Garden in their International Succulent Introduction Program as ISI 2018-6 Aloe bussei and was produced at the garden's micro-propagation (tissue culture) laboratory from material taken from the Huntington Botanic Garden's accession HBG 18918 that was originally plant collected by Gilbert Westcott Reynolds in April, 1957 at the type locality. The images on this page are courtesy of the Huntington Botanic Garden.
This information about Aloe bussei displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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