Aloe melanacantha flowering in private

Aloe melanacantha flowers appear in Namaqualand about three months before the general flowering season, well before the hordes of flower tourists descend upon the region. Pollinators are, of course, not driven by media-induced crazes, only hungry and properly local.

Photos of the leaf rosettes are thus easier to come by and also popular due to the yellow-green, elegantly curved leaves with black thorns on older leaf margins and keels (Reynolds, 1974; Van Wyk and Smith, 2003).