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Aloe is a genus containing about 400 species of flowering succulent plants. The most common and well known of these is Aloe vera, or "true aloe". The genus is native to Africa, and is common in South Africa's Cape Province, the mountains of tropical Africa, and neighbouring areas such as Madagascar, the Arabian peninsula, and the islands of Africa. Most Aloe species have a rosette of large, thick, fleshy leaves. The leaves are often lance-shaped with a sharp apex and a spiny margin. Aloe flowers are tubular, frequently yellow, orange, pink or red, and are borne, densely clustered and pendant, at the apex of simple or branched, leafless stems. Many species of Aloe appear to be stem less, with the rosette growing directly at ground level; other varieties may have a branched or unbranched stem from which the fleshy leaves spring. They vary in colour from grey to bright-green and are sometimes striped or mottled. Some Aloes native to South Africa are arborescent.
A smallish Aloe, closely related to A. maculata and native to grassland in southern Africa between 800 and 1000 m.
USDA Zone - 9
Season to Sow - Spring
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