Plant from the Aloaceae family. The family contains over 500 species of flowering succulent plants. The most widely known species is Aloe vera, or "true aloe", so called because, though probably extinct in the wild, it is cultivated as the standard source of so-called "aloe vera" for assorted pharmaceutical purposes. Over 500 species are accepted in the genus Aloe, plus even more synonyms and unresolved species, subspecies, varieties, and hybrids.