#asphodelaceae

Aloe ferox (A. candelabrum)

Aloe ferox is a widely grown species from South Africa, and the eastern form of the species was for many years considered a separate species, A. candelabrum. Some people still prefer to keep them as separate species, but many authors think they do not differ enough to warrant this. The plants pictured are 2 color forms of A. ferox / candelabrum, and the flower close-ups show one of the distinguishing characters that separate this from the western forms of A. ferox - the whitening of the flower tips at the point where the purplish stamens emerge from the mouth of the flower. Under any name, this is certainly a showstopper when it comes into bloom!

AKA hollow-stemmed asphodel, onion-leafed asphodel, and pink asphodel. The binomial is a combo of Greek and Latin again - a- ‘without’ and sphallo ‘to supplant’, possibly meaning the beautiful flowers are not easily surpassed, and the Latin fistula for ‘pipe’, referring to the leaves.

Like the Trachyandra previously, native to the Mediterranean region (as well as the Arabian Peninsula, Transcaucasus, and Madeira) and a noxious weed where-ever it finds the climate to its liking - the drier parts of the US and Mexico, and parts of Australia and New Zealand.

Photo credit: Jonathan Chua.