Aloe virens

This plant listing for reference only.

Aloe virens Haw. - Huntington Botanical Gardens

This Aloe virens was photographed at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, where the plant is identified by the number 189. That number has an intriguing historical connection: Huntington's archival records document a plant of Aloe virens as Serial No. 189 on March 5, 1935. The accompanying photographic record identifies its location as 60-53 and, most significantly, notes its provenance simply as “Pl. from Orpet.”

“Orpet” refers to Edward Owen Orpet (1863–1956), one of the important horticulturists of early twentieth-century Southern California. An English-trained gardener and horticulturist, Orpet settled in Santa Barbara in 1920 and became Superintendent of Parks from 1921 to 1930. He subsequently developed the Orpet Nursery, specializing in rare plants, bulbs, cacti, and other unusual plants. He was an enthusiastic collector and experimenter, maintaining a collection of more than 800 species and varieties and introducing numerous Aloes to Southern California.

Orpet's interest in Aloe was well established by the 1920s. A 1929 article in California Garden specifically noted that E. O. Orpet of Santa Barbara was growing promising Aloe species.

The Huntington photograph therefore provides more than a record of an Aloe growing in the Desert Garden. It documents a link between Orpet's nursery, the early Huntington collection, and the development of Aloe cultivation in Southern California. While the archival record does not establish whether the plant photographed in 1935 is the direct ancestor of the plant currently bearing number 189, the correspondence of the name and serial number makes the historical connection particularly compelling.

The name Aloe virens itself is also of historical interest. The name has subsequently fallen out of general use and has been treated in modern literature in relation to Aloe humilis. For this reason, the historical Huntington identification has been retained here rather than silently replacing it with a modern name.

Photographed at the Huntington Botanical Gardens.