Aloiampelos tenuior leaves

Aloiampelos tenuior leaves are not always blue-green, the intraspecies differences no longer recognised in the earlier series of varieties, now abandoned.

Many branched stems are grown sporadically from a notable woody base at and immediately below ground level, somewhat tuberous below and up to about 60 cm wide. From this base the plant develops a straggly shrub-shape as stems may be erect, recurved and decumbent. Plant height varies between the common 1 m and 3 m when stems tend to be supported by surrounding vegetation.

The slender stems end in lax leaf rosettes. Leaf presence on the stems reaches down a short distance below the stem-tip in picture, the lower stem parts bare from points determined by seasonal conditions. The bare parts are slightly marked or gnarled from dropped-off leaves.

The lanceolate to linear leaves are thinly fleshy, sheathed at the base, nearly flat, hairless and without spots. Leaf dimensions are about 10 cm to 18 cm long, 1 cm to 2,2 cm wide with internodes up to 2,5 cm but variable in length. Marginal, cartilaginous, white teeth are usually less than half a millimetre long, decreasing in size to the leaf-tip and unevenly spaced, from 1 mm to 2 mm apart.

The specific name, tenuior, is derived from the Latin word tenuis meaning thin, referring to the thinness of the leaves.

The fence aloe is grown from cuttings, an easy exercise apart from where frost occurs (Van Wyk and Smith, 2003; Reynolds, 1974; Jeppe, 1969; iNaturalist).