Its thin, recurved, light-green leaves form an elegant and symmetrical spiral in their growth around the rosette.

However it has more thin delicate pale green or yellow-green leaves; and a thinner trunk than the other robust arborescent aloe species.

The French Aloe's flowers are different from all of these other species though, and the spiral leaf-growth is also distinctive.

[1] The French Aloe is found in a wide coastal belt in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, from the Kei River mouth to the Humansdorp area.

It often grows in association with Aloe ferox, A. africana and A. speciosa, and hybrids can occur.