Gasteria excelsa
| Gasteria excelsa | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Xanthorrhoeaceae |
| Subfamily: | Asphodeloideae |
| Genus: | Gasteria |
| Species: | G. excelsa |
| Binomial name | |
| Gasteria excelsa Baker | |
Gasteria excelsa ("Thicket Gasteria") is a succulent plant, native to the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa.
Description
It is one of the largest of the Gasteria species, second only to Gasteria acinacifolia in height. It has thicker, more robust leaves than its relative though, and forms solitary rosettes of large, smooth, stiff, triangular leaves.
It can be distinguished from its closest relatives by its leaves, which are a distinctive mottled, dark green colour. They have a smooth surface (though juvenile plants' leaves have tubercles) and rough leaf margins.
The leaves of fully grown plants are often channeled on the upper side, with sharp edges and a keel on their lower side.
The branched inflorescence is often over a meter in height, with pink-green flowers and appears between November and February.[1]
Cultivars
- "Cala" (named after its locality, the northernmost of this species) has robust, short, compact leaves with wrinkled margins
- "Gaika" (from Stutterheim) has paler, striped leaves
- "Nquancule" has long sharp scimitar shaped leaves.
In the north along the Mzimvubu river, a transitional form, between Gasteria excelsa and its northern neighbour Gasteria croucheri, is now considered to be a separate transitional species, Gasteria loedolffiae, with some features of both G. excelsa and G. croucheri. Physically it resembles G. croucheri (although with a more dull matt green colour and young plants are more asperulous than tubercled) while its flowers more closely resemble those of G. excelsa.[2][3]
Distribution
This species is indigenous to the Eastern Cape, South Africa, where it is widely distributed in the thicket vegetation of the Transkei - both inland and near to the rocky coast. Roughly, it occurs from Grahamstown in the west, as far north as Cala. Its favoured habitat is dense shady thicket, rocky south-facing sheer cliffs and slopes. It has been recorded higher than any other Gasteria species, at 1500 meters in the southern Drakensberg mountains.
The specific epithet, excelsa, means "lofty" or "high" in Latin. It refers both to the great height of the plant's inflorescence, as well as to the high cliff-face habitat of this species.
They are popular as ornamental plants for containers, but have a very large root system.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gasteria excelsa. |
References
- ↑ Gasteria excelsa - PlantzAfrica information page
- ↑ Gasteria loedolffiae - SANBI article
- ↑ EJ. van Jaarsveld: Gasteria loedolffiae (Asphodelaceae). A new cliff-dwelling species from the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden: Cape Town. 2014.