Aloe microstigma tall-stemmed in Namaqualand

The tall-stemmed Namaqualand version of Aloe microstigma used to be called A. microstigma subsp. microstigma and earlier A. khamiesensis. The subspecies is apparently no longer upheld but is mentioned here as it differs quite a bit from the more common A. microstigma plants.

Usually bearing a single rosette, occasionally a pair, the leaves have roundish white marks and red-brown teeth along the margins. Below the pale, many-leaved rosettes the dense dry leaves, initially brown, tend to darken with age. They persist in a broad, hard mass around the well-concealed stem, not revealing even a slight bit of bare stem at the bottom, as some stem-aloes do.

The stand in picture grows in the Goegap Nature Reserve at the foot of a typical klipkop (rock head) on the edge of a sandy plain (Frandsen, 2017; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Le Roux, et al, 2005; Van Wyk and Smith, 2003; iNaturalist).