''Kumara'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of two species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s in the subfamily

Asphodeloideae Asphodeloideae is a subfamily of the monocot family Asphodelaceae in the order Asparagales. It has previously been treated as a separate family, Asphodelaceae ''sensu stricto''. The family Asphodelaceae has now been proposed to be a nomen conserv ...

, native to the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

Province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Separation from ''Aloe''

Phylogenetic studies indicated that two species that were traditionally classed as members of the genus '' Aloe'' were genetically distinct and comprised an entirely separate clade. The species were accordingly split off as a separate genus, given the name that it had previously held, ''Kumara''. Both species bear characteristically strap-shaped leaves in a two-ranked (orthodistichous) arrangement. Intergeneric hybrids have nonetheless been recorded, between ''Kumara'' and at least one other alooid 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 ...

''. The resulting hybrid, initially published as an infrageneric hybrid between two species of '' Aloe'', is now designated an intergeneric hybrid of the new

nothogenus In botanical nomenclature, a hybrid may be given a hybrid name, which is a special kind of botanical name, but there is no requirement that a hybrid name should be created for plants that are believed to be of hybrid origin. The ''International Co ...

Species

Two species are accepted, : Both species have a unique distichous ("fan") arrangement to their grey, strap-shaped leaves. Both are also indigenous to roughly the same range of mountains in the south-western corner of the

, however the tall tree-like ''

Kumara plicatilis ''Kumara plicatilis'', formerly ''Aloe plicatilis'', the fan-aloe, is a succulent plant endemic to a few mountains in the Fynbos ecoregion, of the Western Cape in South Africa. The plant has an unusual and striking fan-like arrangement of its leav ...

'' is found on the lower slopes of the mountains, while the tiny stemless '' Kumara haemanthifolia'' inhabits the high peaks.

References

Asphodelaceae genera Asphodeloideae {{Asphodelaceae-stub