Random plant event: Aloe x 'Doran Black' flowers

Not the most exciting or unusual occurrence, I'll grant you, and I kind of missed the boat on the pictures: by the time I got to it, the show was half over already. But hey, I'm only one man, and even though it's only January, some of the plants are already starting to speed up growth, use more water, etc.



This happened last year too; 'Doran Black' is apparently just easily bloomed. The flowers are nice enough, I guess, but each individual flower doesn't last very long. Also we've recently seen something awfully similar, though I guess the similarities between Gasteria and Aloe flowers are minor, easily observed evidence for a close genetic relationship between the two plants, which makes this borderline interesting. (At least some, if not all, Gasteria and Aloe species can interbreed, creating intergenic hybrids called "Gasteraloes," which is stronger evidence for the two being related. Gasteraloes don't, to my knowledge, have any particularly huge following or practical use, but now that I've said that I'm sure I'll get the Gasteraloe Society of North America showing up at the blog to tell me they exist, and how dare I not appreciate Gasteraloes as the best plants in the whole wide world, and etc.)



Anyway. I'm actually surprised that we don't have more Aloe and Gasteria species blooming right now at work; I've never been under the impression that any of them were especially shy about blooming. Perhaps the time of year isn't quite right, or maybe we just don't have any specimens that are mature enough to bloom yet. We'll see how things go.