All you wanted to know about Haworthias, Gasterias and Astrolobas: Haworthia blackbeardiana

H. blackbeardiana, near Heatherton

Haworthia blackbeardiana V.Poelln.

blackbeardiana: in honour of Miss G. Blackbeard.

H. blackbeardiana is larger plant with rosette up to 15 cm in diameter, numerous leaves, partly translucent, bluish green colour. Leave margin have usually spines. It is slowly proliferous plant. It belongs to larger complex of cooperi - decipiens - bolusii. It is one of the few elements in the Eastern Cape which grows more inlands (together with tessellata, marumiana etc.). If it gets enough light, it can be quite attractive plant to grow.

Distribution map

H. blackbeardiana has large distribution area. It starts in the West from Middleburg area up to Queenstown in the East. In the North it is reported from Aliwal North and grows South up to Cathcart - Whittlesea area. Bayer includes this element under H. bolusii, which grows more to SW of its distribution area around Graaff-Reinet. There is connection to cooperi in the South around Whittlesea, where glabrous forms are often found. More South you travel, they look more like normal cooperi. Breuer& Hayashi use name specksii for intermediate forms of blackbeardiana/cooperi. From Cradock to South in continuos probably with H. pringlei. There are several forms of blackbeardiana, which has been descibed (by Hayashi&Breur) like calaensis - plants from Eastern limit of its distribution (see separed article), they are generally smaller in nature, but in cultivation after some years they tends to look similar. Other species is specksii, which is intermediate form with cooperi from Whittlesea area. Plants are often without spines (see separed article). Other names like malvina (plants from Cathcart area), batteniae (larger plants from Cradock), interia (Naudesnek) or speciosa (Thomas River) I treat here as synonyms for blackbeardiana.

H. blackbeardiana, Hobbs Hill, N. Cathcart

H. blackbeardiana is quite common in cultivation, usually without good locality data. It is nice to get a couple of them and observe their variability. Growing condition are similar as decipiens or cooperi group. They need more shadier conditions and be careful with over watering. Propagation should be done by seeds, only few clones are proliferous.

Synonyms:
H. bolusii var. blackbeardiana, H. blackbeardiana var. major, H. inermis, H. altilinea var. inermis, H. altilinea var. limpida fa inermis, H. batteniae, H. malvina, H. speciosa, H. interia