What a great image of that beautiful Aloe showing the black spines! I notice that some of the photos show the plant with an open position, does it fold upward like that during drought?
~ I'm an old gal who still loves playing in the dirt!
~ Playing in the dirt is my therapy ... and I'm in therapy a lot!
Yes, exactly, the plant sort of clenches up at the end of the drought season and then releases all that tension within a couple of weeks after the first rain, turning green again in the process.
The release from all that tension looks like this (photo taken today, 3 months after the one above, and 3 weeks after our first deep rain of the season):
