Aloe gariepensis pointed inflorescences

Aloe gariepensis presents its pale, pointed torches in annual ritual representing the toughened plant community living here. Torches, petal placards or coloured sepals, the spring extravaganza is a free-for-all.

Following suit among the spring flowering set of the northwest region, winter rain equips them for peaking now before the hot summer will dry their seeds (and sometimes the rest of them) for the next rainy season.

Many animals living here are adapted to produce offspring coinciding with the availability of palatable green plants in spring as food for their delicate young. Pollination is but one key event among many mutually beneficial interspecies activities taking place on a wide scale in this quiet, unassuming veld community. The aloes contribute much in the pollination frenzy, not so much to the eating of plant parts (Frandsen, 2017; Van Wyk and Smith, 2003; iNaturalist).