High-altitude aloe from western Lesotho with a distinct spiraling form. Highly desired and usually short-lived in cultivation. Solitary. Flowers are salmon-pink to red, rarely yellow, on branched inflorescences.

This aloe is not a beginner succulent or a good indoor plant.

It requires much more regular water than most aloes; it does not like the soil to go bone dry on any kind of regular basis. (Rainfall in habitat, often shrouded in low clouds and mist, is nearly 40 inches a year, more than Portland, Oregon.) It requires excellent drainage and hours of daily direct sun. It does not thrive with any kind of heat and should not be considered where temperatures regularly reach the high 90s or more in summer. Ideal for cool, moderate climates like coastal northern California. The spiral aloe can be rather frost tolerant. Habitat (6500 feet or higher) may reach as low as zone 7, but a safer minimum in cultivation might be zone 9b. In-ground plants will better handle lots of sun in marginal climates, and require less frequent water.

These plants are produced in reasonable numbers by tissue culture (all clones) but grown in much more limited quantities from seed. You need at least one of the latter plants to have any chance at producing seed. Regardless, a small fraction of the plants in cultivation actually live long enough to flower.

This species is related to Aloe pratensis, a smaller and more widespread aloe (in habitat) which does not grow in a spiral formation and has an unbranched inflorescence with shorter flowers.