Aloe pearsonii leaf colours

Fairly safe inside the Goegap Nature Reserve, this Aloe pearsonii plant has produced its typical group of erect branches.

The plants do not grow the common aloe leaf rosettes, but space leaves evenly in four or five dense, vertical ranks or arrays. The leaf bases sheathe the stems, tapering in triangular outline to acutely pointed tips that recurve strongly and evenly. Greener and flat or even convex after rain, they redden and lose moisture often in the harsh conditions of their environmental lot in life. 

It has done something special with late winter leaf colouring. The play of shade nuances on the smooth upper leaf surfaces may spark inspiration in painters. Something special is made of pink-purple, orange-brown, grey-green and other transitions, eschewing conventional colours via fluid blending (Frandsen, 2017; Van Wyk and Smith, 2003; Reynolds, 1974; Jeppe, 1969; iNaturalist).