This Aloe ferox plant has a reduced rosette from the harvest that was made of mature green leaves at the base of the rosette. The short stub remains can be seen where leaves have been removed for collecting the juice.

Aloe striata grows from around the Hex River Pass eastwards through the Karoo and Little Karoo scrub until the Eastern Cape around Port Elizabeth and Graaff-Reinet, also northwards into Namibia and eastwards to the Kei River.

Aloe pluridens, commonly the Fransaalwyn (French aloe), is a single-stemmed plant when growing in dense bush, branched from the base or higher up when standing in the open. The typical height is around 2 m to 3 m, occasionally 5 m and rarely 6 m (SA Tree List No. 30.1).

The environment within which Aloe polyphylla grows is atypical of southern Africa. The bleak, misty Maluti Mountains of western Lesotho are quite unsuitable for most of the other Aloe species of this generally Aloe rich region. .

Aloe peglerae is a stemless Aloe or very nearly so. It normally produces only one leaf rosette per plant. The rosette comprises about 30 leaves that curve inwards to form a compactly rounded shape.

Aloe mutabilis is closely related to A. arborescens, sometimes classified as just another form. Its spectacular feature is the clinging to steep cliff edges, hanging high above water or over deep, shady ravines. There is said to be a form in Mpumalanga bearing pure red flowers, i.e. the perianths do not turn yellow upon opening

Aloe cameronii, commonly red aloe or Cameron’s Ruwari aloe, is not indigenous to South Africa, but a tropical African species found from Zimbabwe to a Malawi. The plant in picture was photographed in the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden during January.

Aloe alooides, the Graskop aloe, grows a single stem with long light-green, droopy leaves. It becomes up to 2 m tall (SA Tree List No. 28.3). Up to five single racemes of yellow flowers may grow in season from the leaf rosette of a thriving plant.

As the specific name aculeata says, it is prickly! The big single rosettes of Aloe aculeata are in winter adorned with impressive yellow or orange inflorescences. Single raceme flowers appear on the younger plants and branched panicles on mature ones. This Aloe is common in parts of the northern provinces of South Africa, particularly in Mpumalanga and Limpopo near Lydenburg and Ohrigstad, as well as over the border in Zimbabwe and Botswana.