Kumara

Kumara is a genus of two leaf succulents, one small tree and one stemless shrub that forms clusters, forming part of the Asphodelaceae or aloe family. The Kumara genus was reinstated when phylogenetic studies showed the two species to form a distinct clade separate from Aloe.

The word, Kumara, used by the German physician and botanist, Medikus, to name a plant genus in 1786, exists in Polynesian languages meaning sweet potato, in Maori meaning food plant and in Sanskrit meaning prince. No connection could be found for the word to the South African plants given this generic name.

The leaf arrangement is distichous, meaning two-ranked to fan-shaped. Aloes typically have their leaves arranged in rosettes, the leaf fans of Kumara closer to those of some gasterias. The green or grey green leaves are oblong and round-tipped, sometimes notched at the tips, or tongue-shaped to strap-shaped, sheathing at the bases. The blades are nearly flat to thickish with succulence, smooth and reddish in parts. No marginal teeth occur. Kumara leaves are more fibrous than is typical of Aloe leaves. Dry leaves do not persist on the stems, where there are corky barked stems present. The leaf sap is clear but not bitter as in many of the aloes. 

The inflorescences are simple racemes, capitate or cylindrical to conical, from few-flowered up to about 30 flowers. There is usually only one inflorescence per season from a leaf fan. The buds are erect or angled up, the open flowers nodding or pendulous, sometimes club-shaped towards the tips, or fleshy. Perianth colours are scarlet to orange. 

The two Kumara species are endemic to the Western Cape, occurring on high or low fynbos mountain slopes, from the Koue Bokkeveld and Tulbagh to near Paarl and Stellenbosch. Kumara plicatilis is popular in winter rainfall area gardens and containers, K. haemanthifolia not easy to cultivate.

The plant in picture is K. plicatilis (Frandsen, 2017; Van Wyk and Smith, 2003; Jeppe, 1969; https://pza.sanbi.org).