Types of Aloes Found in Southern California

Aloe aloe!

If you’ve been to a state park, national forest, protected coastline or national park anywhere near Los Angeles, then chances are pretty high that you’ve found yourself at the unfortunate end of a particularly spiny aloe leaf. Don’t be embarrassed — it’s practically a rite of passage for living here.

Aloes are a common desert plant here in Southern California, and they take many forms depending on where you look. And, since Southern California’s deserts are already so varied in climate, so are their flora varied in shape, size and color.

Here are a few of the aloes you’re likely to see as you visit the dry and arid forests, beaches and national parks around Los Angeles.

Aloes you can find in SoCal deserts

Aloe arborescens

Common name: krantz aloe, candelabra aloe

The species name on this tree — arborescens — refers to the tree-like nature of the aloe, though it’s more like a shrub in reality. The semi-firm aloe leaves grow in a rosette pattern at the tip of a long stalk, with the ends of the leaves drooping down toward the ground once they get long enough. 

Most notable, though, are the beautiful red flowers that grow from the top of the aloe on their own impressive stalk. Each flower bud is a beautiful gradient of reds and yellows, all stacked in a teardrop shape that can grow as high as 8 feet tall!

Aloe cameronii

Common name: Cameron’s aloe

This low-lying aloe spreads over the ground in a beautiful dark-red blanket, with gorgeous red flowers growing on individual stalks above the clusters. 

These aloes grow darker as they age and are exposed to more sun, so don’t be surprised if they’re harder to spot among the rocks and dark soils of the desert. The rosettes can grow up to 4 feet across, each thick leaf edged with thick, blood-red spikes, making for a pretty scary sight. 

Aloe ferox

Common names: bitter aloe, Cape aloe, red aloe

The aloe ferox is a tall plant with a large, woody stem topped with a big bunch of long thick leaves. You can identify it best by the tall, single-stalk red flowers that grow up from the top of the tree-like aloe, as well as by the scattering of tiny spines on the inside of the leaf when you’re up close. 

These tall aloes are indigenous to the rocky desert hills of Southern Africa, but they’ve made their way to Southern California where the climate is still relatively similar — dry summers, wet winters, rocky terrain and plenty of sunshine. 

Aloe marlothii

Common name: mountain aloe, flat-flowered aloe

This tall aloe looks almost identical to its cousin, the Aloe ferox, from a distance. It’s also characterized by a tall, woody trunk and a cluster of long leaves, but the differences only become obvious in the winter months when these aloes tend to bloom.

Where the bitter aloe displays individual red flowers standing upright on the aloe, this mountain aloe features a busy cluster of branching yellow flowers that create a dome of blooms above the plant — hence the name “flat-flowered aloe.”

The leaves also tend to have more spines than the bitter aloe, but relative spiny-ness is hard to determine without direct comparison if you’re out and about on a hike. Aloes also lose spiny-ness as they grow larger, so it’s easier to use the flowers to distinguish the plant, rather than the amount of spines. 

Aloe striata

Common name: coral aloe

Now to a smaller aloe that you can still spot easily in a national park or along a local hike, and the names are actually pretty helpful in identifying it.

This aloe grows close to the ground in a rosette-shaped pattern, as most aloes do. If you look closely, you can see faint stripes across the leaf, as well as a light pink coloration along the edge of the leaf — hence the “striata” label, which means “stripes.” The cluster of leaves can reach sizes of up to two feet or more in length, making it an impressive sight on the barren desert hills.

The colorful clusters of red flowers on this aloe look like coral from afar, making it easy to identify and lovely to look at. If enough are growing around each other and you’re lucky enough to stumble upon a large swath of them in bloom, they resemble a bright red coral reef over the rocky desert ground on which they thrive. 

Next time you’re out and about in the deserts, hills and roadsides around your Southern California apartments, keep an eye out for these common aloes growing around the warm, arid landscape. 

Have fun!

Pin it!

Featured photo courtesy Pixabay/WandererCreative