Aloe mitriformis now called A. perfoliata

Aloe mitriformis, the mitre aloe, is one of the Western Cape creeping or trailing aloes. The name has been changed to A. perfoliata, or more accurately the species has been sunken into A. perfoliata, but not all seem to agree with the change yet. 

The plant branches repeatedly and sustains leaves only towards the ends of branches. These leaf rosettes are too large and heavy for the thin branches to support in an erect position, leaving the stems procumbent.

The leaves are short, broad, blue-green and smooth. Leaf colour varies according to the plant’s position in sun or shade as well as the watering it receives. The teeth on the edges are characteristically variable in colour, as can be seen in picture. Mitriformis comes from the leaf rosette's likeness to a mitre or bishop’s headgear.

The inflorescence is usually a panicle consisting of up to five branches. The racemes are short and vary from flat-topped or rounded to conical. Flowers are slender, densely clustered and bright red to pinkish red. They appear throughout summer. 

The distribution is in the west of the Western Cape from the Cape Peninsula to the Bokkeveld Mountains and to the far southwest of the Northern Cape.

The habitat is vertical fynbos and renosterveld cliff faces and crevices in rock sheets. In nature the plant receives its rain in winter. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century.

The species is similar to A. comptonii and A. distans (Van Wyk and Smith, 2003; Jeppe, 1969; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).