Aloe arenicola
The sand aloe is a creeping aloe from the coastal dunes of Namaqualand, on South Africa's west coast. It has narrow, blue-green leaves with small white spots and white-toothed edges, and orange-red flowers on branched stems in midsummer. It lives in a dry, winter-rainfall, fog-fed climate, so in cultivation the main dangers are wet roots and stems.
Where it grows wild
It is confined to the narrow strip of sandy coastal dunes along the South African west coast, sprawling along the ground in full sun. In the worst droughts it survives on moisture from sea mists. Young plants have long stems with spaced leaves, while older plants form dense rosettes.
Coastal dunes near sea level; no specific elevations are recorded.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, unmodified.