Red tubular Aloe arborescens flowers with green-tipped openings and yellow stamens surround a reddish stalk

Aloe arborescens (Torch Aloe)

Native to southern Africa, this evergreen succulent shrub forms many leafy branches and can reach about 10 feet tall. It produces dense spikes of tubular red-orange flowers, with yellow-flowered forms also occurring. Winter flowering in South Africa provides nectar for sunbirds and bees. It is drought-tolerant once established and is planted as a living fence around livestock enclosures in parts of South Africa. Branch cuttings root readily. It has naturalized in eastern Australia, where it is an environmental weed in Queensland and New South Wales, particularly in sandy coastal habitats. It is harmful if eaten. Photographed in Bogotá, Colombia.

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Red-orange Aloe arborescens flowers open below tightly packed tapered buds beside a woody trunk

An upright Aloe arborescens raceme has orange-red tubular flowers and pale-tipped buds against branching cacti

Red Aloe arborescens flowers project from a stalk with pink-tipped buds and dry papery bracts

Two red-orange Aloe arborescens racemes rise among fleshy green leaves with toothed margins

Orange-red Aloe arborescens flowers hang below upright buds on a stalk in sunlight

A branching Aloe arborescens shrub bears numerous red-orange racemes above rosettes of arching toothed leaves

Tall Aloe arborescens flower stalks rise above dense leaf rosettes with trees and pale sky behind them