Aloe reynoldsii

Aloe reynoldsii, the yellow spineless aloe, is a stemless or short-stemmed leaf succulent reaching 60 cm in height when flowering. The stems, where present are covered in dead leaves. Clumps of multiple rosettes may be grown, up to 12 in one plant.

The dense rosette may consist of up to 20 leaves. The leaf-shape is ovate to lanceolate, tapering to acutely pointed tips. Leaf dimensions are 35 cm long and 11 cm wide (at the base). The leaves are covered in longitudinal lines and scattered H-shaped white spots on both surfaces. Leaf surfaces are smooth and spineless, pale bluish green to yellowish in colour. The usually pale pinkish-red margins are cartilaginous and finely toothed, the small, soft to firm teeth irregular in size and spacing. The leaf sap is honey-coloured.

A. striata, a similar species has no marginal teeth, its leaves not as wavy. A. buhrii of the northern Cape, also similar, has firmer, fleshier and narrower leaves. A. karasbergensis, also of the Northern Cape and Namibia flowers pink to coral red.

A. reynoldsii is limited to a frost-free region in the Eastern Cape by the Mbashe River, up to 50 km inland. The plants are found at elevations from 150 m to 1000 m. 

This rare plant grows on steep rocky slopes and cliffs in humid, fairly inaccessible terrain, where plant collection is not easy. The summer rainfall here is up to 750 mm. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century, in spite of being critically rare, as its population is deemed stable.

The species is found in cultivation (Frandsen, 2017; Van Wyk and Smith, 2003; Reynolds, 1974; Jeppe, 1969; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).