Aloe ferox fruiting

The fruits of Aloe ferox have formed successfully on the erect branches of this panicle, photographed in October well after the normal flowering season. The smooth, fleshy capsules are ovoid and bulging. The red-brown colour of the capsules seen here varies, sometimes may be green. The ripe fruits dry out and split to release numerous small dark seeds, each attached to a thin wing that facilitates wind dispersal. Two rows of seeds grow in each of the three segments of a capsule; the ovary of an Aloe flower being ovate and six-grooved. In the photo some dry perianth remains still linger upon the capsules they helped to produce.

Of the about 600 recognised Aloe species on earth, about 20 that grow on Madagascar and the Mascarene islands (Mauritius, Réunion and Rodriguez) have different types of fruit: fleshy berries that become woody and don’t quite dry out. This group is sometimes not recognised as aloes species and classified separately in a genus called Lomatophyllum. Their leaves and flowers look like those of aloes.

The leaf surfaces of the A. ferox in picture have no spines. Only the margins have hard reddish teeth, evenly spaced from base to tip. A short row of spines is, however, found on the keel ridge upon the lower leaf surface near its tip, as can be observed on the one leaf angled suitably in the photo for this to be visible (Reynolds, 1974; Van Wyk and Smith, 2003; iNaturalist; Wikipedia).