page_title: Gonialoe variegata
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Gonialoe variegata / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Plate depicting Aloe variegata L.
context_page_description: Gonialoe variegata, also known as tiger aloe and partridge-breasted aloe, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asphodelaceae. It is an evergreen succulent perennial indigenous to South Africa and Namibia. It is common in cultivation.
context_section_description: Plants grow to around 20–30 cm, with 18–24 leaves arranged in three ranks. New leaves appear individually over time from the centre of the plant, flattening older leaves and pushing them outward in a spiral fashion. Each leaf is a rich green colour with irregular light green banding made up of amalgamated, slightly raised oval spots, and similarly light coloured fine serrations along each edge. In mature plants the outer, and thus oldest, leaves are 10–15 cm long and approximately 3–6 cm broad at the base. Depending on trauma, space, water availability or even old age, outer leaves will die off, turning golden brown and shriveling away.
  Plants reach maturity in three to seven years, again largely dependent on the space, sunlight and water available, at which point they will begin to send out racemes of flowers. Flowers develop in a cluster at the head of the raceme and are spaced out by its rapid growth.
  
  The flowers are orange, arranged in a raceme of around 20–30 cm in height. In its natural habitat in southern Africa, flowers are produced from July to September, with offsets being readily formed.
caption: 1801 plate depicting Gonialoe variegata
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