Aloe Species

Central Phoenix -- Given the taxonomic confusion surrounding this plant, it may be or may not be that we are all talking about the same s...Read Morepecies. My plant is definitely not frost-sensitive. It was 27F in my backyard last night, and my A. "congolensis" is fine, despite having several heads sticking well above the layer of pecan leaves that provide "frost protection" to that bed. It has been growing in the ground in that spot since February 2014. The location is partial shade in summer, full sun in winter, with water every other week in summer and none in winter, unless it rains. The plant is healthy and has expanded substantially.

Native to Togo, W Africa. Considered a grass aloe, though leaves are pretty wide for on of these. When dry, leaves almost disappear com...Read Morepletely (semideciduous) leaving only flowers and a bulb. Plants get periodically burned with periodic grass fires in their range so bulb is probably an ecologic strategy to survive such events. Rare in cultivation.

Generally tolerates the deserts of Arizona fine, but isn't hardy at all. It melted and vanished in the 2007 freeze. Strangely, this Jul...Read Morey, one plant that got a fair amount of light under shade cloth entirely suffered "heat rot", which is something I've not before experienced with this Aloe. July 2009 went down as the hottest July on record for Phoenix, so it's not surprising this plant didn't hold up - I had many failures this summer. Great potted plant otherwise.

This is not an officially described species at this time, but has been named 'unofficially' for many years. I am not sure why this is th...Read Moree case, as it is a consistently described plant, and a common and available one at that. No other name has been given to it that I know of, but perhaps someone will correct me at some time. Sadly it did not appear in the 'Definite Guide' of Aloes published in 2011... maybe the next version?

It is a bright green species with short, stiff, shiny, almost plastic-like leaves that are wedge-shaped and somewhat flat to recurving near the tips. It is an aggressive offsetter, and a good grower (here in southern California), and will eventually take over an area... though it is a low growing species. Rosettes are only about 4"-5" in diameter, but branches can be up to 2' long- sort of sprawling species. Leaves are often retained the entire length of the stem, though eventually slough off. The leaves are heavily armed with large, sharp teeth the same color as the leaves (bright green). This is one of the more painful aloes to trim without gloves (ouch!!).

This is an excellent potted plant, and does well in hanging baskets/pots, as the branches tend to spawl and droop ornamentally, and are strong enough to support themselves up to over a foot outside the pot.

If not watered well, or in bright sun in dry conditions, or subject to cold (ie stressed) plants will develop an attractive reddish to deep brown color, though usually some green is maintained.

Flowers are always on solitary (unbranched) racemes about 1' long or more, and are pinkish-red-orange in late fall to mid winter. Without enough sunlight, plants seem resistant to flower... also, it seems to take the plant years to mature enough to get to flowering size.

This is a very common plant, often seen at Target and Home Depot garden centers... so I am surprised at its lack of official taxonomic designation.

Found out the hard way, Jan 2007 in So California, this is one of the least cold hardy aloes there are with every single plant, no matter what its location in the yard, turned to mush during an exceptionally severe frost/freeze. Only Aloe dorotheae (which some consider this a form of) or Aloe barberae came close to its cold wimpiness out of the 250 other species of aloe in the yard. At least this 'species' is not a hard one to replace. In its defence, I did not permanently lose any of these freeze damaged piles of mush. All grew back from the roots and are doing well today (4 years later). So though I would rate this one a zone 10a plant, it certainly can survive zone 9b if you don't give up on it.