Aloe Suzannae

[real_ale]

I now its a long shot and a million to one chance, has anybody got or know where you can get Aloe Susannae from in the UK or the world.

[Saslowi]

Try asking on the British Cactus & Succulent Society forum: http://www.bcss.org.uk/foruma/index.php

[JoelR]

You could try Silverhill Seeds SA website. They will ship seeds to the UK.

[GaryW]

My only suggestion is to use Google on a regular basis and search under Aloe suzannae spelling too !

[Jo A P]

Could you put in a picture of it? Google isn't being very helpful! I find a lot of 'oddities' at the local GCs & markets, you'd be amazed at what I pick up here.

[real_ale]

i finally got hold of Aloe Suzannae from http://www.succulent-tissue-culture.com/EN/home, this need protecting and saving before they are lost, they are around less than 5 left in the wild, they originate from Madagasar. so we all need to buy one and grow them .

[Saslowi]

Unfortunately buying tissue culture plants is not the answer to saving species. You loose genetic diversity which weakens the plants.

Also aloes are outcrossers which means they need to cross pollinate to produce viable seeds. Any plants tissue cultured from the same parent plant will be genetically identical and not cross pollinate.

Tissue cultured plants are great if you just want to add a rare plant to your collection.

[JoelR]

I'm not a fan of tissue culture either but returned to habit tc plants could assist endangered species (if they ever got there). Interesting there is a bit of self fertility in aloes and I've raised seed from solitary plants which were helped with a paint brush during pollination so your Aloe susannae could produce viable offspring.

[real_ale]

Unfortunately buying tissue culture plants is not the answer to saving species. You loose genetic diversity which weakens the plants.

Also aloes are outcrossers which means they need to cross pollinate to produce viable seeds. Any plants tissue cultured from the same parent plant will be genetically identical and not cross pollinate.

Tissue cultured plants are great if you just want to add a rare plant to your collection.

Unfortunately buying tissue culture plants is not the answer to saving species. You loose genetic diversity which weakens the plants.

Also aloes are outcrossers which means they need to cross pollinate to produce viable seeds. Any plants tissue cultured from the same parent plant will be genetically identical and not cross pollinate.

Tissue cultured plants are great if you just want to add a rare plant to your collection.

These Aloe's were produced from seed not plant tissue cultured

[Saslowi]

[quote="real_ale]
These Aloe's were produced from seed not plant tissue cultured[/quote]

Are you sure? You have bought from a tissue culture laboratory.

[real_ale]

Quote from Succulent Tissue Culture

"Yes, these are the rare Aloe suzannae from Madagascar

Clone 6 means as it says; we had 6 seeds and each seed germinated and each seed was multiplied, so then you have 6 different ‘clones’. Some of these clones are for sale, for instance clone 6

All plants from clone 6 are genetically the same."

[Saslowi]

OK. So the plants they actually sell are tissue culture raised plants but they are using tissue from six differrent seed raised plants to produce the tissue.

If you want to produce your own seeds you would be advised to buy plants from more than one clone for genetic diversity.

I do think tissue culture has a role to play in conservation but only to lessen the need for habitat collected plants to satisfy commercial demands.

I do not think they should be used for reintroduction but that is only my opinion.