Aloe dawei
Common: Aloe dawei, Dawe's aloe, Jacob's ladder
Family: Asphodelaceae
Origin/Range: Mountains of eastern and central Africa (Uganda, Congo, Rwanda)
Light: Full sun to light shade
Temp: Heat tolerance, does better with some shade in summer; cold hardiness 25° to 30°f
Water: Fairly drought tolerant, but looks better with regular watering
Also known as Aloe pole-evansii, Aloe beniensis.
Evergreen succulent perennial. Clustering elongated succulent rosettes, up to 3 feet tall (90 cm). The Aloe dawei has red-orange blossoms in winter.
Aloes have long been used for medicinal and cosmetic purposes, and even make their appearance in legends and literature. In The Thousand and One Nights, for example, Scheherazade entertains the sultan with stories of Sindbad, a sailor who sets out to trade his cargo for precious stones, cloves, cinnamon, pepper, and aloes, and ends up finding unexpected adventures.
More recently, famed South African playwright Athol Fugard addressed apartheid with his award-winning play A Lesson from Aloes.