Almost Popping. Aloe succotrina, Fynbos Aloe, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
As mists and wet snow flurries mugly shroud the canal outside my window, I've spent a little time in the warmer climes of the East Indies, South Africa and Socotra. Earlier I'd been in the South Africa Glass House of the Hortus of which many of the plants were described in the catalogue engagingly written by Jan Commelin (1629-1692). So, too, this Aloe succotrina, about to burst into flower.
But looking at the explicative name board supplied by the Hortus the specific 'succotrina' struck me. No doubt, I thought, that name refers to the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean just off the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Sea. But our plant is said - on that name board - to be endemic to the Fynbos in the area of Cape Town, South Africa. And having scurried off home I found that Jan Commelin in 1697 refers to the East Indies as its provenance. Now, I can imagine that in the minds of the seventeenth-century Dutch Socotra might be referred to as in the East Indies; in fact, that latter term was used for the Malabar Coast of India as well. So that clarifies our Aloe's 'succotrina'. But then another problem arises: how is it that this plant is generally said to be endemic to the Fynbos of South Africa while its name claims its native land as Socotra. I haven't worked that out yet...
Almost Popping. Aloe succotrina, Fynbos Aloe, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
As mists and wet snow flurries mugly shroud the canal outside my window, I've spent a little time in the warmer climes of the East Indies, South Africa and Socotra. Earlier I'd been in the South Africa Glass House of the Hortus of which many of the plants were described in the catalogue engagingly written by Jan Commelin (1629-1692). So, too, this Aloe succotrina, about to burst into flower.
But looking at the explicative name board supplied by the Hortus the specific 'succotrina' struck me. No doubt, I thought, that name refers to the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean just off the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Sea. But our plant is said - on that name board - to be endemic to the Fynbos in the area of Cape Town, South Africa. And having scurried off home I found that Jan Commelin in 1697 refers to the East Indies as its provenance. Now, I can imagine that in the minds of the seventeenth-century Dutch Socotra might be referred to as in the East Indies; in fact, that latter term was used for the Malabar Coast of India as well. So that clarifies our Aloe's 'succotrina'. But then another problem arises: how is it that this plant is generally said to be endemic to the Fynbos of South Africa while its name claims its native land as Socotra. I haven't worked that out yet...