It grows best in shady conditions but in some areas is also found in the open in heaths on mountain tops.

[1] This aloe is a small herbaceous plant with stiff, succulent strap-shaped leaves that belie the humid and perennially wet conditions that it grows under.

The leaves are thin, about 18–28 cm long and often bent forwards along the central vein.

The flowers are a very attractive crimson colour, borne on 30 cm curved stalks above the foliage.

The plant is strictly confined to woodland and wet forest on mountain sides above 1500 m altitude from just north of Nyanga southwards to Mount Rupere and Mount Ruinji near Stapleford in northern Manicaland.