Have you ever heard of Aloe Barbadensis?
When you hear this term for the first time, your mind quickly points to the Aloe Vera plant.
So, is there any correlation between Aloe Barbadensis and Aloe Vera?
Are these two different varieties of the Aloe plant?
Let's find out more about it in the guide below.
What Is Aloe Barbadensis?
Aloe Barbadensis is another term for the Aloe Vera plant.
As we all know, Aloe Vera is not the scientific name for this plant.
It is mostly used as a common name to identify the plants that come under this category of plant.
As for history, the name Aloe Barbadensis seems to have derived from The Gardener's Dictionary, written by a known botanist Philip Miller.
Aloe Barbadensis vs. Aloe Vera - The Difference
As I have explained earlier, the Aloe Barbadensis and Aloe Vera are just two different terms for the same plant.
There is no real difference between them other than the names, of course!
So, if you are confused about these two names, remember common Aloe in mind whenever someone refers to Aloe Barbadensis.
It should help understand the reference.
Meanwhile, Aloe Vera is also an easy to remember name than Aloe Barbadensis.
Most garden centers and nurseries sell this plant with the same name instead of its confusing scientific name.
But if you are someone who is studying botany or gardening, you will have to remember the scientific name correctly.
There are quite a few other varieties of Aloe plants in the world, so this type of classification helps understand more about the specific variety.
Now that you know there is no difference between Aloe Barbendsis and Aloe Vera, let's look at some of the useful growing tips below.
5 Tips For Growing Aloe Barbadensis At Home
Here are a few tips that will help you grow Aloe Barbadensis in your home garden -
1. Do Not Overwater Your Plant
Overwatering is the last thing you want to do in this type of plant.
Aloe Barbadensis is known to grow in arid conditions, so it doesn't require a lot of water for survival and growth.
If you put excess water into this plant, the leaves might turn mushy and begin to rot in a few days.
Hence, you should try to avoid watering this plant unnecessarily.
If you still end up watering it excessively, you should immediately move the plant to a sunny place.
This way, the heat from the sun will soak up the moisture from the surface of the pot, and you might be able to save your plant from rotting.
If the situation is worse, you will have to repot or transplant the plant accordingly.
It's the only way to save such a plant from this situation.
Also, you will have to do it in a hurry.
Do not wait for a day or two to see if there's any improvement in the plant.
2. Use Sandy And Well-Draining Soil
With each indoor plant, the one thing you'll always encounter is moist or wet soil.
No matter how good you are at watering your plants, you will come across this situation at some point in your lifetime.
To avoid this problem, you can make sure that the plant has sandy and well-draining soil.
You can make this type of soil at home.
Simply prepare a combination of gardening soil, perlite, and sand.
You can increase the quantity of sand and perlite in this mixture so that it can drain out water quickly.
If you are not keen on preparing your own soil mix, you can get succulent-specific soil from the local garden store.
They usually keep this type of soil for indoor gardeners, so you may request the same.
Once you get this soil, you can repot the plant and allow it to grow in this new growing medium.
3. Provide Natural Light To This Plant
Natural light is the best source of light for this plant.
The Aloe Barbadensis plant grows in direct sunlight in its natural habitat.
So, it won't mind if you keep it in such light conditions for a long period.
In fact, it will thrive in these conditions.
But if you want to keep this plant indoors, you can keep the planter near a window.
This is an ideal place to grow your Aloe plant.
In case you live in harsh weather places, you may keep the plant away from direct sunlight.
When the conditions are back to normal, you can move it to its regular bright and shiny spot.
The other reason you should keep this plant in sunlight is that it allows it to keep it dry for a long time.
As you might know, dry surfaces do not attract fungus or bugs related issues.
This means you will not have to deal with such unnecessary issues in the garden.
4. Remove The Dust Accumulated On The Surface Of The Leaves
Yes, you will have to remove the dust from this plant.
Since this plant doesn't require a lot of attention, we tend to neglect it for weeks and months.
This is the reason why you might see a thin layer of dust on its leaves all the time.
Although the dust doesn't affect the plant directly, it surely blocks the tiny holes on the leaf surface.
These pores are necessary for the plant to receive enough sunlight.
So, you should keep the surface of the leaves clean all the time.
5. Prune The Plant Regularly
Like most other gardening practices, pruning is quite important too.
Pruning helps encourage the growth of plants and also keeps them away from any possible issues.
Therefore, you should remove the excess growth from the plant.
Try to get rid of the leaves that are leaning downwards or damaged.
These leaves will not serve any purpose to the plant.
Instead, you should look for new growth in the plant, which will only happen if you remove some of the unnecessary leaves.
And that's pretty much about the care for this plant.
In the following section, you will find some FAQs related to this topic.
Do check them out if you want to know more about this plant.
FAQs
Yes, it's nothing but the same plant.
As explained in the guide, Barbadensis is just another name for the common Aloe Vera plant.
I hope it resolves the confusion.
The term was probably first coined by an English botanist called Philip Miller, and it was mentioned in his work called The Gardener's Dictionary.
You can identify this plant with the white dots on its leaves.
Some of the other varieties of Aloe do not have these spots.
So, it becomes easier to identify the Barbadensis with this common feature.
Aloe Barbadensis can be used for different purposes.
As we all know, the gel of this plant has a lot of beneficial properties.
So, you can use it directly or use it in processed forms, depending on the requirement.
Apart from that, you can use this plant to enhance the beauty of your decor.
It also looks pretty in outdoor places, and you would surely not want to miss the sight when this plant blooms.
The real or common Aloe Vera plant will have a rosette-like structure, which means the leaves of this plant will pretty much begin to grow from the base.
You may or may not be able to see the stem of this plant.
The leaves will have tiny white spots and thorns on the edges.
The surface of the leaves will be smooth, which helps drain the water or raindrops that might fall on top of them.
Over To You
It doesn't matter whether you call it Aloe Barbadensis or Aloe Vera.
The only thing that matters for most indoor gardeners is how you grow this plant well in available conditions.
So, hopefully, the above guide helps in addressing these concerns about this variety of Aloe plants.
Now, if you have any queries or want to know more about this specific variety, please let me know in the comments.
I will try my best to respond to your queries with appropriate information.
If you liked this guide, do share it with your friends and family.
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