Aloe esculenta
Category: Single Head Stemless Aloes
USDA Hardiness Zones: 9b - 11
Overview
Aloe esculenta is a gorgeous, large growing aloe from Angola with a tight, upright rosette with wavy, graceful, and heavily spotted leaves. This Aloe grows to about 2' to 2.5' and has very tall inflorescences, on occasion towering 6 feet over the plant, that bear pink flowers with yellow lobes.Description
Aloe esculenta is an evergreen, succulent, perennial plant forming a compact rosette of leaves to about 2 to 2.5 feet tall. Its pale green leaves have a hazy blue coating that covers some of the surface. The upper surface spots or splotches are generally solid, while the lower ones look like tiny eyes. Leaves are relatively straight and slightly fluted. The marginal teeth are a rusty-red color. It usually suckers freely to form dense clumps of plants that are often stemless.
Flowering
Aloe esculenta flowers on multiple, outrageously large, branched inflorescences about 3 to 4 feet tall in winter with open, narrow conical racemes of deep, dull pink flowers with yellow tips.Origin / History
Aloe esculenta is Angolan native with one recorded locality in Zambia at Sioma in the early 1990s but it has not been seen recently. It is likely that collectors have depleted the population.
Care / Cultivation
Succeeds in full sun and in light shade. Established plants are drought tolerant. The general habitat is recorded as dry woodland.Frost Tenderness
Reportedly very frost tender yet surviving well with no damage when temperatures reached 27F in Southern California.Use in the Garden
The freely offsetting nature of Aloe esculenta along with it's attractive foliage make it a great choice for mass planting in your garden's mid-ground. The exceptionally tall inflorences will also add season interest - if not for the flowers themselves then for the sheer size of the bloom stalks.
Learn More
The information on this page about Aloe esculenta has been gathered and summarized from the sources below. Visit these pages to learn more.
- https://www.agaveville.org/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1037
- https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/64037/
- https://www.zambiaflora.com/speciesdata/species.php?species_id=211650
- https://plantlust.com/plants/46015/aloe-esculenta/
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