''Gonialoe sladeniana'' is a species of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

in the genus ''

Gonialoe ''Gonialoe'' (the partridge aloes) is a small genus of three succulent plant species, indigenous to South Africa, Namibia and Angola. They were formerly included within the related genus ''Aloe''. The three species are '' Gonialoe variegata, Gon ...

''. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to arid areas of central

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

Description

The small, stemless rosettes produce suckers that offshoot from the root, which can eventually form dense clumps. The sharp, triangular green leaves point slightly upwards and form three rows. The leaves are covered in linear white spots, and their narrow white cartilaginous margins are finely notched. Tall, very thin

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s appear in January and February, with small sparse pale pink flowers. Taxonomically, it was formerly part of the ''Serrulatae'' series of very closely related ''

Aloe ''Aloe'' (; also written ''Aloë'') is a genus containing over 650 species of flowering succulent plants.WFO (2022): Aloe L. Published on the Internet;http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-4000001341. Accessed on: 06 Nov 2022 The most wid ...

'' species, together with ''

Aloe variegata ''Gonialoe variegata'' ( syn. ''Aloe variegata''), also known as tiger aloe and partridge-breasted aloe, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asphodelaceae. It is an evergreen succulent perennial indigenous to South Africa and Namibia. ...

'' and ''

Aloe dinteri ''Gonialoe dinteri'', the Namibian partridge aloe, is a species of flowering plant in the Asphodelaceae family. It is native to arid areas of Angola and Namibia. Description The plants form stemless rosettes of up to 30 cm wide. Smaller s ...

''. Recent phylogenetic studies have shown these three species to possibly constitute an entirely separate genus, with the name ''

''. While this species looks rather similar to its two sister species, it can be distinguished from ''

Gonialoe dinteri ''Gonialoe dinteri'', the Namibian partridge aloe, is a species of flowering plant in the Asphodelaceae family. It is native to arid areas of Angola and Namibia. Description The plants form stemless rosettes of up to 30 cm wide. Smaller s ...

'' by its shorter, straighter, less recurved leaves; and it can be distinguished from ''

Gonialoe variegata ''Gonialoe variegata'' ( syn. ''Aloe variegata''), also known as tiger aloe and partridge-breasted aloe, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asphodelaceae. It is an evergreen succulent perennial indigenous to South Africa and Namibia. ...

'' by its taller thinner sparser inflorescence, by its having far fewer leaves, and by the spots on its leaves being more linear, almost to the point of being stripes.

Distribution

The species is endemic to central

, south-west of

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...

. Here its habitat is rocky quartzite in granite hills & shrubland. This is an arid region of intermediate rainfall, between the winter-rainfall regions to the south, and the summer rainfall areas to the north. In a gradation of the three sister species, to the north ''

'' gradually takes over in the summer rainfall areas. To the south it makes way for ''

'' in the winter rainfall regions.Reynolds, G.W. 1950. ''The aloes of Southern Africa.'' Balkema, Cape Town.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q63663795, from2=Q138480 sladeniana Endemic flora of Namibia Least concern plants Least concern biota of Africa Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN