Aloe arenicola is a spotted creeping aloe

Aloe

Aloe , also Aloë, is a genus containing about 500 species of flowering succulent plants. The most common and well known of these is Aloe vera, or "true aloe"....

, indigenous to the arid west-coast of South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.

The name "arenicola" means "inhabitant of sands" in Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

, as this tough aloe is naturally restricted to the sandy dune areas that run in a narrow strip along the South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n west coast, from Lamberts Bay

Lamberts Bay

Lamberts Bay is a small fishing town in the Western Cape province of South Africa situated 280 kilometres north of Cape Town. It is part of the Cederberg Municipality....

 in the south, up to the Namibian border

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

 in the north. This coastal strip lies within the Namaqualand

Namaqualand

Namaqualand is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of 170,000 square miles/440,000 km². It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into two portions - Little Namaqualand to the south and Great Namaqualand to the...

, an arid winter-rainfall area. During the severest droughts, the plants get all the moisture they require from the mists that sweep up from the sea.

This aloe is a dark blue-green colour with narrow leaves that are covered in small white spots and rimmed with white teeth. Like most aloes, they turn a reddish colour when they are under stress from drought. The plant tends to ramble along the ground, never growing higher than about 70cm.
Orange-red flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s appear on multi-branched raceme

Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

s in the mid-summer.

The Sand Aloe is part of a group of very closely related "Creeping Aloes", including the widespread and variable Aloe perfoliata

Aloe perfoliata

Aloe perfoliata is a hardy creeping aloe, found in rocky, mountainous areas throughout the Western Cape, South Africa.-Naming and classification:Aloe perfoliata was formerly known as Aloe mitriformis...

, as well as rarer species such as the unusual Aloe pearsonii

Aloe pearsonii

Aloe pearsonii is very distinctive and unusual species of Aloe, that is naturally endemic to the arid Richtersveld area, on the border between South Africa and Namibia.It is classified as endangered on the IUCN's Red Data List....

and the rock-hanging Aloe meyeri and Aloe dabernorisana.