Aloe polyphylla leaf-tips

Aloe polyphylla is an aloe that produces many leaves as the specific name indicates: polyphylla is derived from the Greek words polus meaning many and phullon meaning a leaf; not the eponymous builder’s product for filling cracks in walls!

The short and broad leaves are almost triangular in shape; just bulging a bit along their sides. The two (almost?) equal margins of the nearly isosceles triangle are visible most of the way, hiding at the bottom with the base of the triangle.

Leaf colour is grey-green to blue-green. The leaf-tips soon dry out from the original pale orange or cream to the purplish black seen here above narrow, creamy yellow transitional bands. The markedly off-centre cartilaginous leaf keels on the lower (outer) leaf surfaces are clearly in evidence here. They may have a few spines similar to the teeth on the margins. The bias in the keels accentuate the spirals in the rosette pattern, raising the question as to whether the leaf margins are truly equal. Leaf margins have cartilaginous ridges where the spaced and short, cream coloured teeth can be seen. Parts of the margins may have toothless intervals in an irregular pattern.

The leaf sap of this Aloe is clear. The rosette reaches a height of 50 cm and may measure 80 cm across (Van Wyk and Smith, 2003; Reynolds, 1974; Jeppe, 1969; iNaturalist).