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The Aloe genus has over 500 species as well as hundreds of different types of named Aloe hybrids and cultivated varieties. They are native to Africa, Madagascar, Yemen and Arabia, but are grown world wide as both landscape and house plants. They have naturalized throughout the Americas and are found far from cultivation.
Aloes range from tiny ground hugging rosettes the size of an old US fifty cent
piece like Aloe haworthioides (native to Madagascar) to full-scale trees like
Aloe bainsii, Aloe rupestris (South Africa) and others. Low growing and shrubby Aloes are often shade tolerant.
Of course when
most people think of Aloes, they think of medical aloe, Aloe vera. However they don't do so well in the Bay Area because
they rot in the cool wet weather of our winters. For our climate the winter
growing Aloes thrive - so for a handy burn plant try Aloe arborescens.
Aloe
belongs to the lily family (Lileaceae, sub family of Asphodelaceae). Related
plants: Haworthia and Gasteria.
