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.

The beautiful and rare Spiral Aloe’s habitat is restricted to the high Maluti Mountains of Lesotho. The Spiral Aloe is single stemmed, though it will sometimes grow in very dense groups, with leaves that are perfectly arranged, either clockwise or anti-clockwise. The plant consists of about 5 layers of leaves, each with 15-30 leaves. They do not form offsets so the only means of propagation is from seed. It has become a prized collector’s item which could be why its numbers in the wild has diminished. Aloe polyphylla was recently added to the red list of endangered species. Plants have approximately 150 leaves each, which explain the species name “polyphylla”. “Poly” means “many” and “phylla” is Greek for “leaves”. The leaves themselves are broad and have a grey-green colour. The tips usually become dark, purplish brown and are quite sharp. The margins are irregularly toothed. The Spiral Aloe has beautiful red to pink flowers that are compacted on the inflorescence during spring and early summer. It is a criminal offence to remove plants or seed of Aloe polyphylla from the natural habitat or to buy plants from roadside vendors. Worst of all, plants which have been removed from their habitat usually do not survive for more than a few years. You may buy with confidence, as these seeds were not collected from the wild. This rare, endangered aloe is a prime example of ex-situ conservation, where there are more plants in cultivation than in the wild. They do well in pots and look beautiful when companion planted with plants like Euphorbia.