Aloes are very popular and some of the most rewarding plants to cultivate. They make excellent accent plants owing to their often strange and inspiring architectures, as well as the bright flowers that offset the grey-green leaves. They are also very suitable as container plants and small aloes can be used very effectively as border plants at the edge of a bed. Although aloes are most often included in rockeries, their application in horticulture is not limited to this feature and they can be used in almost any setting and in conjunction with most common garden plants. Their natural adaptation to harsh and often arid climates makes aloes outstanding subjects for the water-wise garden. Aloe is a genus in the Asphodeloideae family containing about 600 species of flowering succulent plants. Aloes are sometimes confused with Agaves. Contrarily to Agaves, Aloe leaves contain a gel like sap. Another difference is that Aloes don’t die after blooming as most Agaves do.

Aloe myriacantha is a South African indigenous succulent found in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga Provinces. It belongs to a group collectively referred to as Grass Aloes. It is a small solitary perennial succulent that does not form suckers. It has up to 15 erect, grass-like leaves in a basal rosette, up to 40 cm long. The leaves are linear, fleshy, bright green, purple-brown and densely white-spotted near the base. The leaf margins are covered in numerous, small white teeth. The attractive flowers are pendulous, two-lipped, pale green to dull purple-brown.