Aloe succotrina and the Yemen island, Socotra

Aloe succotrina, a Western Cape aloe, growing on fynbos mountain slopes and close to the sea from the Cape Peninsula to Mossel Bay, was named after the Yemen island of Socotra off the Horn of Africa! This happened because the plant was thought to have originated there. The geographical origin correction in the literature dates back only to 1906. Such errors tend not to cause name changes or corrections, as the oldest written record is often the one that is kept, until other considerations, such as genetic information updates or political sensibilities countermand.

Socotra itself has fame as the endemic home of more than two hundred interesting or remarkable plant species, including some aloes used for medicinal and cosmetic purposes. Although this aloe does not deserve its name, it serves to remind of early human endeavours in mastering plant knowledge; and of the botanical significance of the rarely visited island of Socotra.

There is, for instance, the dragon blood tree on Socotra, Dracaena cinnabari, an umbrella-shaped tree bearing red sap used in olden times as a dye and medicine, but even today is used as a varnish and paint.

According to Chung Ki Sung in his PhD dissertation in the School of Pharmacy at Chonnam National University, Alexander the Great conquered Socotra to obtain aloe medicines there for the treatment of his soldiers.

A. succotrina was the first South African aloe to be grown in Europe, said to have flowered there by 1689 for the first time (Smith, et al, 2017; Van Wyk and Smith, 2003; Reynolds, 1974; iNaturalist; Wikipedia; https://pza.sanbi.org).