The late Prof. MacOwan states that sun-birds (Nectarineae) are the pollinating agents of Aloe striata and some other species of Aloe, and if the birds are kept away by covering the inflorescence with wire netting, few or no capsules are produced.
Our specimen was collected by Dr. I. B. Pole Evans at Dassie Deur near Port Elizabeth, and flowered in the garden of the Division of Botany, Pretoria, in August.
Specimens are preserved in the National Herbarium.
Description:—Stem underground. Leaves about 13, crowded in a basal rosette, up to 30 cm. long, 6-11·5 cm. broad, oblong, oblong-lanceolate, or the inner ovate, acuminate, flat, bluish-grey, glaucous, faintly many-nerved, with pink margins. Peduncle about 24 cm. long, branched above; at the base flat on one side, convex on the other; in the upper portion semiterete. Inflorescence a panicle of racemes, the ultimate racemes 6-9 cm. long, lax. Bracts subtending the racemes about 1 cm. long, membranous, ovate, acuminate. Floral bracts 3 mm. long, ovate, acuminate, acute, membranous. Pedicels about 1 cm. long, spreading. Flowers more or less pendulous. Perianth-tube in mature flowers 2 cm. long, globose at the base, then slightly constricted, then gradually widening into a tube 6 mm. in diameter at the throat; lobes about 3 mm. long, ovate, rounded at the apex. Stamens included or slightly exserted; filaments attached at the base of the perianth-tube, 1·7 cm. long; anthers about 1 mm. long. Ovary 5 mm. long, oblong; style 1·7 cm. long, terete; stigma faintly 3-lobed. Immature fruit 2 cm. long, 1·1 cm. in diameter, ellipsoid, subtrigonous.
Plate 55.—Fig. 1, plant showing characteristic habit; Fig. 2, transverse section of leaf; Fig. 3, flower; Fig. 4, bract; Fig. 5, stamen; Fig. 6, young fruit.
F.P.S.A., 1922.