Abstract:
Aloe spectabilis Reynolds (1937) was described from
material that was collected from KwaZulu-Natal, the
eastern-most province of South Africa. Previously, material
of this species was erroneously considered to represent
a form of A.ferox Mill. (Berger 1908: 310,311), a
predominantly southern and eastern Cape species (see
Van Wyk & Smith 2003: 56 for a distribution map of A.
ferox). Aloe spectabilis, in contrast, has its present-day
centre of distribution around Bushman's River Valley
near Weenen, along the Mooi River near Muden and Keats Drift, and in the Tugela [Thukela] River Valley
between Mpofana and Pomeroy on the Greytown-Dundee
Road in KwaZulu-Natal.
