Aloe rupestris Baker

Stem mostly simple, up to 6-8 met. high, about 20 cm diam., rather slender for its length, old dried leaf remains persistent in upper third only. Leaves about 30-40, densely rosulate, erectly spreading and recurved, up to 70 cm long, 7-10 cm broad at base when pressed flat, gradually narrowing from base to the pointed apex, dull to slightly glossy deep green; upper surface rather flat near base, deeply canaliculate upwards, without spots or lines, glabrous; lower surface convex; margins sinuate-dentate, with a deep pink to pale red edge armed with stout deltoid pungent reddish-brown teeth, 4-6 mm long, 8-12 mm distant, smaller, more crowded and straighter nearer base, larger more distant and more hooked forward upwards. Inflorescence a 6-9-branched panicle about 1-1.25 met. high, the lowest branches 1-2-rebranched, producing a total of 12-18 racemes. Peduncle laterally compressed and biconvex low down, about 4 cm, broad, more terete upwards, brown, slightly sulcate, branches below racemes clothed with several sterile bracts. Racemes cylindric, slightly acuminate, somewhat truncate, 20-25 cm long, 7 cm diam., very densely multiflowered, the buds orange-yellow, green striped in upper half, open flowers lemon-yellow in lower third, orange-yellow to brownish-yellow upwards, the buds and flowers spreading downwards, with the 15 mm exserted part of the stamens Vermillion, and giving racemes a bicoloured effect. Bracts very small, about 1 mm long, 2 mm broad at base. Pedicels 1 mm long, the flowers sometimes almost sessile. Perianth 20 mm long, cylindric slightly ventricose, 4 mm diam. near base; outer segments free to just beyond the middle (tube about 8 mm), with 3 green nerves confluent at apex, the apices sub-acute, straight to slightly spreading; inner segments themselves free but dorsally adnate to the outer for about 6 mm, broader than the outer (6 mm wide at the middle), with thin white marginal border, and with 3 congested nerves forming a green keel in median line, the apices more obtuse and slightly more spreading. Filaments filiform-flattened, the 3 inner narrower and lengthening in advance of the 3 outer, the included portion lemon-yellow, the 15 mm exserted portion deep orange to vermillion. Anthers the 3 inner and 3 outer in turn exserted 15 mm Style filiform, deep orange, with the stigma at length exserted up to 20 mm. Ovary 5 mm long, 3 mm diam. at the middle, finely 6-grooved, green.

It is a subtropical plant.