Aloe melanacantha black thorns

These Aloe melanacantha leaf rosettes were seen in the Goegap Nature Reserve in August. The spaced, black thorns occur only on leaf margins and the upper part of the keel on the outside surface. Elsewhere the blade skins appear smooth, the grey-green may also be yellow-green or red-brown.

Flowering happens at the end of autumn and early winter but this clump may have skipped a season (Van Wyk and Smith, 2003; iNaturalist).