Like a number of other Ethiopian aloe species, A. schelpei has proven to be a persistent and showy garden subject. Its glaucous rosettes grow to about 2' in diameter and slowly offset to form a clump. The short conical racemes are borne singly or on inflorescences with a side branch. The showy orange buds open paler and give an appearance reminiscent of A. sinkatana from Sudan with which it can easily be confused at first glance. Reynolds reports visiting the type locality in 1960 and described the species in honor of Dr. E. A. Schelpe, a botanist at the University of Cape Town, who discovered the species in 1952. We offer tissue-cultured plants of HBG 34081, a plant received from Harry Johnson in 1974 that was said to have originated from the type locality: 7,700' altitude, on steep grassland slopes of Boli Gorge, Mulu Sayu (Brigadier D. A. Sanford’s farm), west of the road to the Blue Nile and Debra Marcos, Shoa Province, 54 km N of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. $10.
Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 91 (2), Summer 2019