Haworthia joleneae Hayashi

By Gerhard Marx - 26 July 2023

The treatment of H. bobii as a distinct element is further strengthened by the fact that roughly 20 km to the north a very closely related plant was found which shares some of the features of H. bobii except for being consistently totally glabrous and with some differences in size and colour. In cultivation the latter glabrous plant grows to a slightly larger size and while its flowers are essentially similar to that of H. bobii, it has more slender and longer fruits.

In contrast to H. bobbi which is known only from a single small area north of Infanta, H. joleneae is currently known from at least half a dozen small populations between the Potberg and the Breede River south of Malgas.

Haworthia joleneae was yet another discovery by Bruce and Daphne Bayer and an additional example of the outstanding field exploration skills of the couple.

The name H. joleneae is in honour of Jolene Kemp, the daughter of the landowner of the type locality of this very beautiful and fascinating plant.

In my personal opinion this delightful glabrous phenomenon should probably be formally considered as a variant of H. bobii but Dr Hayashi argued that within his narrower species concept it justifies to being considered as separate. The fact that there is no gradual transition over the twenty kilometre gap between the two and that even the least hairy H. bobii specimen is still easily distinguished from the glabrous H. joleneae form acceptable parts of Dr Hayashi’s argument.