Aloe macroclada
A big, solitary, stemless aloe from the grassy highlands of central Madagascar. Its thick leaves can exceed 1 m, and the oldest ones lie flat on the ground. A single tall spike of red to orange flowers can reach 1.6 m. It grows in full sun on grassy slopes and among granite boulders at 1,200–1,700 m, with a warm wet summer and a cool dry winter. It is slow to mature, reaching flowering size in about four to five years.
Where it grows wild
Labels describe grassy slopes on deep soil, grassland among granite boulders on the northern slopes of Mt Ibity, savanna on inselbergs near Ankazobe, and wooded savanna with Uapaca bojeri and Sarcolaena at Itremo. The plant is stemless and solitary, with a dense rosette of wide, thick leaves up to about 1 m long and 20 cm wide at the base. It has a simple, erect inflorescence 1–1.6 m tall.
GBIF elevations run from 1,200 to 1,700 m, on the central highland plateau. Frost is rare there, but winter nights are cool.
🔒 Growing it like that
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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 4.0 licence, unmodified.