Small to medium-sized, herbaceous, slow-growing, succulent, perennial, maculate aloe, total height excluding inflorescence 0.17-0.28 m, usually clumped, 5-70 heads, sometimes solitary, a single head up to (17-)22 cm in diameter. Roots cylindrical, 5 mm in diameter. Stems absent or, if rarely present, very short. Leaves few, 12-15, rosulate, rigidly spreading to erect, persistent when dry, dull mid-green, upper surface slightly concave, hardly canaliculate, with numerous scattered white spots throughout, spots arranged in irregular transverse bands; lower surface convex, white spots more distinctly arranged in transverse bands, sometimes confluent yielding milky green surface, texture smooth, linear-attenuate, tapering to apex, 17-26 cm long, 3.5-5.5 cm broad at base, basally sheathing; margins very thin, brown, with triangular marginal teeth, green with light brown tips, ± 4 mm long, same length throughout, evenly spaced at 10-13 mm apart; exudate pale yellowish, drying purple. Inflorescence 1-3, successively, 0.65-0.75 m tall, far exceeding the height of rosette, central raceme longest, 5-7-branched from above middle, branches arcuate-erect. Peduncle 270-420 mm long, 8-14 mm broad at base, basally plano-convex, cylindrical above, light greenish brown with a white, powdery bloom; not sterile bracteate; bracts subtending racemes narrowly triangular, 15-65 mm long, 6-8 mm broad at the base, straw-coloured to light brown, papery, rarely fleshy, many nerved. Racemes cylindrical, 14-17 cm long, 3-5 cm wide; buds erect to suberect, flowers horizontal to drooping when mature. Floral bracts narrowly triangular, long attenuate, amplexicaul around pedicel, 5-9 mm long, 4-5 mm wide, straw-coloured, papery, 3-4 nerved. Pedicels 10-12 mm long, pinkish brown. Flowers: actinomorphic to slightly zygomorphic, unscented, nectariferous; perianth greenish tipped in buds, somewhat bicoloured when mature, light pink to mainly orange-red to bright red with whitish to yellowish longitudinal stripes, tip extremity purplish brown or whitish, lightly pruinose, 20-25 mm long, flattened at base, ± 6 mm across ovary, distinctly narrowed above ovary to ± 3 mm to form globose basal swelling, enlarging to 6-7 mm towards throat and wide open mouth, tubular-cymbiform; outer segments larger than inner segments, lorate, free for ± 7 mm, free portion centrally pinkish red, borders white or light yellowish, acute, segment margins straight, tips slightly recurved; inner segments narrower than outer, with white or yellowish border and more obtuse apex, free for upper 2/3 of their length; stamens with cylindrically threadlike to very slightly flattened, light yellow filaments, 25-28 mm long, all 6 of ± equal length, exserted for 2-5 mm; anthers small, 1-2 mm long, dark brown, versatile; ovary 5-6 mm long, 3 mm in diameter, light green; style as long as or slightly longer than stamens, minutely capitate, with small stigma, exserted 1-2 mm. Fruit an erect, bright green, cylindrical, trilocular capsule, 17-22 mm long, 9-11 mm in diameter, apically truncate, dry remains of tepals shed from around fruit early on, dehiscing loculicidally, chartaceous when dry, apically valves sigmoidally curved outwards. Seeds dark greyish brown, angled, laterally compressed, 2.5-3.0 mm long, with up to 1 mm wide off-white wing stretching around periphery of seed. Chromosome number unknown.
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