Aloidendron dichotomum

[Geoff]

The classic Aloe tree from South Africa... wonderful specimen tree with smooth upper trunk and cracked, ornamental, woody lower trunk. This is a moderately slow growing tree aloe, but if given sufficient water or planted in rich soil, can grow surprisingly fast. Has thick, non-bending (brittle) pale green to blue-green leaves with tiny marginal teeth. Gets a really fat base with time. Yellow flowers in winter, but needs to be really happy to flower.

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Aloe dichotomas in my yard, Los Angeles

[GreekDesert]

Both look fantastic!

Here is one of mine how it looks like during the hot summers.

[Geoff]

University of California Irvine botanical garden

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nursery along coast of California (showing plants can handle some humidity)

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Southern California

[Geoff]

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private garden in San Marcos, California

[Geoff]

California Cactus Center plant

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private garden, San Marcos, California

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more shots from California

[Geoff]

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foliage and trunk

[Geoff]

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flowering plants, winter, southern California

[Geoff]

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winter flowers, southern California

[mcvansoest]

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In the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, AZ. It will take the heat, but likes some shade in the hot summers.

[GreekDesert]

Aloe dichotoma, Gran Canaria

[zpunout]

Aloe dichotoma grown from seed - two and a half years old

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[Spination]

@ zpunout - very impressive 2 1/2 years from seed!

@ mickthecactus - looking good! Mine is much more reddish sitting outside for 3 months, getting full sun until about 1 PM now. When I got it, it looked just like yours.

In March

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In June

2015 06 14 Aloe dichotoma c.JPG (161.77 KiB) Viewed 9642 times

[zpunout]

@ Spination: Mine went into the ground when it was about 1 and a half inches tall. From there, it's growth really accelerated. My only concern is of it's future as an adult tree as it might rot at the base due to excessive rainfall in summer.
Shane

[mickthecactus]

You get more sun than we do........

[Spination]

Thanks Shane, that turned out to be very useful information. Even though my plant has only been in it's what I thought was an appropriately sized pot for the root system it came with, I was inspired by your experience to put it into a larger pot, even though it's only been 3 months since I got it. I was very surprised to find that in that short time, the impressive amount of new roots were already circling the bottom of the pot. It's now as of this morning in a huge pot by comparison, which may encourage the plant to grow quicker.

That's true mick, although this has been a strange year for us as opposed to usual much more sunny days. A whole lot of high-fog/cloudy mornings, which burn off sometimes early, and sometimes later. This is a very late developing summer season for us (I'm glad! - means less watering necessary ). Additionally, that plant sits in a spot which only gets the direct sun until midday, and it sits right next to other Aloes, such as a big polyphylla (which is as green as can be), peglerae (still very bluish), and glauca (still looking very glaucous), and even a group of plicatillis which all look not at all sun stressed. I think the reason for the dichotoma's reaction is that it's a new plant for me, and I'm thinking now it must have come out of a greenhouse, and is adjusting to a drastic change in lighting for that plant.

Tom

[mickthecactus]

Have to say that I take as many Aloes out of the greenhouse as I can for summer. They certainly seem to appreciate it.

[zpunout]

Photo taken at the Munich Botanic Gardens a few weeks ago.

aloe dichotoma at the Botanischer Garten München

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[mickthecactus]

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[toditd]

Aloe dichotoma in splendid winter bloom at Desert Foothills Gardens Nursery. The bees were loving it. A truly impressive plant! Terrible cell phone pic just doesn't do it any justice - that's why it took me 3 months to decide whether or not to post it here.

Aloe dichotoma 2017-12-03

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[zpunout]

a. dichotoma

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a. dichotoma

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Adelaide Botanic Gardens. These are planted all along the bank of a dry riverbed. There are numerous aloidendron barberae and other large varieties there as well.

dry creek bed with numerous tree aloes planted along it

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left to right: a. thraskii, a. barberae, a. dichotoma

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[mcvansoest]

Are you sure that those plants with the big leaves are actually Aloe dichotoma? To me the leaves on these look way too big for the size of the trunk to be straight up dichotoma, has more of a Aloe x 'Hercules' flavor to me...

I think if you compare this to the pictures earlier in this thread you will see how different they look.

[zpunout]

They do appear very chunky and fast growing but they are labelled as dichotoma. I'm unaware of any Hercules in Australia and am hoping one day to hybridise my own. The bottom picture is labelled from left to right a. thraskii, a. barberae and a. dichotoma. Maybe I shouldn't have included that last picture as it could cause confusion.

[Geoff]

They look like just very happy and well watered Aloe dichotomas to me... the leaf size will shrink once they start dichotomizing. But the leaf bases and they way they are compacted along the trunk looks more like dichotoma than any hybrid of it.

[Tony C]

Northern Cape ,South Africa

[Spination]

Wow. What is that huge mass that's accumulated in the lower branches? Brush, moss-like material? Accumulated naturally, or with help over time by birds nesting therein?