[2] It is commonly called Table Mountain aloe, and is a rare succulent plant that is endemic to the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.

A stout inflorescence shoots up, bearing reddish erect buds that open into dense, bright orange-yellow flowers.

A. commixta is easily identified by its straight, wide, succulent leaves (that do not recurve downwards, as in the case of many other Aloiampelos species), by its slender, sprawling stems, and by the unique and distinguishing subcapitate raceme of its flowers.

Within this tiny natural range, Aloiampelos commixta is particularly concentrated in the central region of the Peninsula, in the area around Kommetjie, Kalk Bay, Fishhoek, Simonstown and Miller's Point (although smaller, outlying populations exist elsewhere on the Table Mountain chain).

However most of the known plants are located within Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) and their high, inaccessible habitat is usually too steep and rocky to be used for agriculture or development.

The major threat to this species comes from invasive alien plants – chief among these "Rooikrans" (Acacia cyclops) from Australia which, until recently, blanketed the slopes of the Cape Peninsula.

However the weed clearance will require several follow ups to be completed, otherwise the highly invasive acacias will rapidly return and cover these slopes again, driving Aloiampelos commixta (as well as other endemics) to extinction.

The active ingredients that are supposedly responsible for the plant's medicinal qualities are the compounds known as aloin (from the sap) as well as complex polysaccharides and glycoproteins (from the pulp).