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Aloe castilloniae (Star Aloe) - An unusual low sprawling aloe that grows as a dense cluster to 6 inches tall and spreads slowly over time to several feet wide. The leafy stems are tipped by the 3-inch-wide rosettes of 1 inch long recurved and rough textured olive-green leaves that have prominent red teeth. Flowering and most growth is put on in fall and winter and then slowing when dormant in the heat of summer. The few orange flowers are held on a very short (about 2 inches tall) simple unbranched inflorescence.
Plant in full to part sun in a very well-drained soil and irrigate occasionally to very little - does well with winter rainfall so long as soil drains well. It is not very hardy and often listed as frost intolerant, but we have grown it outdoors in our nursery where it has been subjected to light frosts and temperatures down to 31° F. This unique aloe is a bit of a collector's item as a potted plant, but it can also be used in a featured small area in the rock or succulent garden. Its unusual foliage and clustering habit is the most attractive feature and while the flowers are charming and attractive, they are hardly showy.
This rare Madagascan cliff dwelling aloe comes from a location a few miles inland on the coastal facing Plateau Mahafaly near Joffreville in south-west Madagascar where it is found growing on porous calcareous sandstone from 300 to 900 feet in elevation. In the wild it forms almost vine-like stems that hang from cliffs and drape over boulders with stems one to two feet long. It was first described by Jean-Bernard Castillon in 2006 and named to honor his wife Bernadette, a horticulturalist specializing in Madagascan succulents at CB Succulentes on the French Island of La Reunion located in the Indian Ocean. We have a couple clones of this plant and this one is the smaller and tighter of the two, with leaves only about one inch long. We list the other as Aloe castilloniae (Large Form) We purchased our original stock plant from Cactus and Succulent Society of America Editor Tim Harvey in February 2012.
The information about Aloe castilloniae displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include 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 we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant. |
