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Aloe mawii "Malawi Form" (Tree Khuzi) - A small tree-like aloe to 6 feet tall, unbranched or sparingly branched with dense rosettes of 2-foot-long red tinged grey-green leaves that are 3 to 4 inches wide at the base and tapper to recurved narrowed tips with reddish margins and orange-brown teeth. In mid-winter (January-February) in Southern California, when the foliage is often entirely red, appear the long inflorescences arching outward with reddish orange flowers held horizontally facing upward on one side of the stem (secund) with exerted blue-purple stamens tipped with orange anthers - quite attractive and unusual!
Plant in full sun in a well-drained soil and irrigate occasionally to infrequently. Cold hardy for short duration to around 25° F - has sustained damage at 27° F in Ojai California so likely best for coastal gardens or more frost-free locations.
This form is the more tree-like form with heavy stems that comes from the type locality is on the Zomba Plateau in Malawi, but this species also grows into Mozambique and into southern Tanzania where it grows on grassy rocky slopes at altitudes between 1,800 and 6,000 feet. We have also long grown a more shrub-like lower branching form that we call Aloe mawii "Mozambique Form". The specific epithet honors Captain A.H. Maw, on whose property in Malawi the type specimen was collected. Common names include Chinthembwe (Nyanja, Tumbuka), Khuzi (Ngoni) and lichongwe (Yao). Though we have both this more tree-like form and the shruby form of this species in our nursery, all of our plants originated from cuttings received as Aloe mawii IAS12-019c from the Institute of Aloe Studies (IAS) in 2012. John Miller of IAS told us that his stock plant, which in 2016 had a 3- to 4-foot-tall trunk branching with 5 heads, was originally purchased from Exotica Nursery in Germany. We have sold the form we now call "Mozambique Form" since 2017 and in 2023 began selling this more tree-like form as "Malawi Form".
The information about Aloe mawii "Malawi Form" 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. |
