Notes on three aloes of Malawi: Aloe canis, A. lateritia, and A. suffulta (Asphodelaceae subfam. Alooideae)

Summary: For three species of Aloe L. (Asphodelaceae subfam. Alooideae), A. canis S.Lane, A. suffulta Reynolds, and A. lateritia Engl., which are rare in Malawi, detailed habitat information is given to facilitate their recollection in that country. Aloe canis, a Malawian endemic, was observed at three localities in the 1970s by T.P. Campbell-Barker and published as new by S. Lane in 1991; it now may be extinct in the wild in Malawi but, as far as we could ascertain, has persisted ex situ as a single plant in cultivation. Aloe suffulta from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa was collected in Malawi only once in the 1970s by T.P. Campbell-Barker, and A. lateritia from Kenya and Tanzania only twice during 1967–68 by B.J. Hargreaves, and in 1991 by P. Downs (†). These collections of A. suffulta and A. lateritia were not supported by preserved specimens.