All you wanted to know about Haworthias, Gasterias and Astrolobas: Haworthia arachnoidea var. setata

H. arachnoidea var. setata, Spooksdrif, Meiringspoort

Haworthia arachnoidea var. setata (Haw.) M.B.Bayer

setata: bristled.

H. arachnoidea var. setata belongs to the arachnoidea group of plants. Size of the rosette is from 3cm up to 10cm, usually remains solitary or slowly proliferous. It differs from the type one being smaller with dense white bristles. Leaves are much softer than var. scabrispina. From var. aranea it differs, that leaves and spines do not blacken on dying, also var. aranea is more softer on touch.

Distribution map

H. arachnoidea var. setata grows from Cogmanskloof in the West up to De Rust in the East. It is quite variable element and like var nigricans it is connected to mucronata in some places - for example at Montagu and Tradouw Pass (here the element was described as tradouwensi - see other article). At Montagu intermediate forms with mucronata were described as 'laxa'. Around Ladismith is growing very attractive form, which is very white and roundish - I use name 'candida' ex Hayashi ( see other article). Form from Steytlerville, which is far away to the East, was described as 'tretyrensis' (see other article).

To make it more easy - if we follow strictly M.B.Bayer, var. arachnoidea grows only in Worcester - Robertson area. The main distribution area of var. setata is from Calitzdorp, Oudtshoorn, Schoemanspoort, Dysseldorp up to the area East of De Rust. At Meiringspoort grows small, clump-forming form of setata. More to the East, at Rooiloop grows strange, possibly intermediate form with decipiens or mucronata. More complicating is the fact, that in general Oudtshoorn area it co-occurs with var. aranea and sometimes it is hard to distinguish between them. At Schoemanspoort grows both of them - var. setata and aranea. In this very interesting place (not only for Haworthias) is growing intermediate form with mucronata (old unicolor var.???) - this has a new name 'apta' and will be discussed later. Bayer in his Haworthia Revisited mentioned setata from Jansenville area - these are now described as H. odetteae.

Var. setata grows in similar conditions like other arachnoidea species - keep it more in the shade and be carefully with over-watering. Propagation should be done by seeds of offsets.

Synonyms:
H.setata, H.setata var. media, H.setata var. major, H.setata var. gigas, H. minima var. major, H.tenera var. major, Aloe setosa.