Aloe juvenna

Aloe juvenna.

Aloe juvenna, the Tiger Tooth aloe has no synonyms.
They are a miniature succulent initially with a single erect stem.
As the stem grows it lies on the ground with the tip erect.
Plants sucker freely and stems branch at the base forming clumps up to 60 cm or more wide and 25 cm high.
Stems on the ground do not form roots.

The stems are covered in closely spaced spirally arranged leaves with a tight rosette at the tip.
The fleshy triangular leaves are a bright green with pale spots on both surfaces.
In bright sunlight leaves may become reddish-brown.
There are teeth around the whole leaf edge and 2 smaller ones on the pointed tip.
The long curved teeth are pale with a reddish-brown tip.
They look vicious but are soft and rubbery.

Axillary inflorescences, almost always unbranched are a raceme on a stout leafless scape up to 25 cm high.
There are triangular green and red bracts at the base of the raceme.

Flowers are on a short pedicel with a small bracteole at the base.
The tubular flowers only have a very slight constriction above the ovary.
There are 6 tepals with the 3 in the outer whorl being fused for around three-quarters of their length.
All the tepal lobes curve back.
Species flowers are described as red to red-orange with yellow and green tips.
There are a number of subspecies and cultivars.

(Aloe zanzibarica is sometimes seen as a synonym of A. juvenna but according to Kew and the IPNI it is a synonym of A. squarrosa.
The two plants are often confused but A. squarrosa only has a terminal rosette with leaves below dying off leaving a bare stem.
The more widely spaced green and white spotted A. squarrosa leaves are larger, longer and curved.
The flowers are pale orange with greenish lobes.)

J.F.