Aloe micracantha Haw.

Common names.

Wateraalwyn (Afrikaans).

Description.

Grass aloe, 0.35-0.50 m high; rosettes usually solitary. Acaulescent plants or stem very short, simple, sometimes 1- or 2-branched, erect. Leaves multifarious, sub-distichous in young plants, erect, rigid, deep green to yellowish-green, with copious white, subtuberculate and subspinulescent spots especially on lower surface towards base, deeply channelled on upper surface, narrowly deltoid to linear, acuminate, 30-50 cm long, 2-4 cm wide at base; margin with firm, white teeth, up to 2 mm long, 1-3 mm apart; exudate clear. Inflorescence 0.45-0.50 m high, erect, simple. Raceme capitate, somewhat corymbose, ± 8 cm long, dense. Floral bracts ± 35 mm long, 5-7 mm wide. Pedicels 20-35 mm long. Flowers: perianth salmon-pink to reddish-orange, 25-40 mm long, slightly constricted above ovary, slightly widening towards wide open mouth, basally stipitate, straight, cylindrical-trigonous; outer segments free to base; stamens exserted 0-1 mm; style exserted 1-2 mm.

Flowering time.

January-March.

Habitat.

Well-drained, dry, open sandy or stony places in coastal grassland, often wedged between rocks.

Diagnostic characters.

Aloe micracantha can be distinguished from other grass aloes in KwaZulu-Natal with unkeeled leaves that are usually narrower than 3.5 cm and that lack a bulb-like underground swelling ( Aloe dominella, Aloe linearifolia, Aloe minima, Aloe nicholsii, Aloe parviflora and Aloe saundersiae), by the multifarious to sub-distichous, erect and rigid, deep yellowish-green, smoothly channelled (not sharply keeled) leaves (30-50 × 2-4 cm), with copious white spots on both surfaces. It is also characterised by the unbranched inflorescences (0.45-0.50 m high) with dense, capitate racemes, where the pedicels (20-35 mm long), perianth (25-40 mm long) and ovary are all salmon-pink. Rosettes are usually solitary.

Conservation status.

Near-threatened. Threats include agricultural practices, urban expansion and the encroachment of alien invasives (Raimondo et al. 2009).

Distribution.

Occurs in a fairly narrow coastal to near-coastal strip from the Uniondale area in the Western Cape to Bathurst in the Eastern Cape, with outlier collections from Mt Ayliff in the north-eastern Eastern Cape and Karkloof in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (Fig. 23). It is the grass aloe with the most westerly distribution in southern Africa and the only grass aloe to occur in Fynbos vegetation.