Aloe vera is well-known for its digestive-helping juice and gel for treating sunburns, but this common houseplant succulent is more complex than meets the eye!
It comes from the tropics and naturally produces flowers and seeds, just like many houseplants do. Aloe vera plants, however, hardly ever bloom indoors, so most of us have never seen one in bloom.
Africa and Arabia produce tropical perennial aloe. In tropical conditions, aloe produces tubular red, yellow, orange, or pink bunches annually, frequently numerous times.
Aloe is a succulent grass in the Asphodelaceae family with 140 species, similar to Haworthia and Kniphofia (“Red Hot Poker”).
Medical usage of aloe leaf gel began around 2,400 years ago in China and India. The Egyptians dubbed aloe “the plant of immortality,” and the Greeks termed it a medical panacea.
Most people associate aloe with its calming leaves, but its tubular blooms have been utilized for immunological and digestive disorders.