This miniature, clump-forming aloe was described in Bradleya 21: 53-56 (2003). It has rosettes to about 10 cm in diameter, with glossy, glabrous, recurved, lime-green leaves that can take on an orangish blush in bright light. Its flowers are lemon-yellow and are borne in subcapitate racemes, mostly unbranched or with a second branch. Forster notes that Aloe bakeri occurs nearby but at lower elevations. Castillon & Castillon suggest, in their recently self-published Les Aloe de Madagascar (2010), a possible hybrid origin: Aloe bakeri × A. deltoideodonta based on diversity of flower-color and inflorescence-shape observed at the type locality. More research is required to definitively answer this question. In the meantime, we offer rooted offsets of HBG 104724 from tissue-culture of the type collection, P. V. Bruyns 5962A, collected June 27, 2002, in the mountains of Manambaro, Fort Dauphin district, Madagascar. $10.
Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 83 (2), March - April, 2011