Flora of North America species comparison

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Aloaceae

aloe family
Habit Trees, shrubs, and succulents, perennial, simple to sparsely branched, rhizomatous, some tuberous-thickened.
Leaves

simple, alternate, usually crowded at bases of stems or ends of branches, sessile;

blade fleshy, margins often prickly, venation parallel.
Inflorescences

terminal, axillary, or lateral, spicate, racemose, or paniculate.
Flowers

3-merous, short- to long-pedicellate, rarely sessile;

perianth red, brown, yellow, orange, or whitish;

tepals petaloid, connivent or connate basally to almost entirely into tube, sometimes fleshy;

stamens sometimes 3, usually 6, exserted or included;

anthers dorsifixed, dehiscence antrorse;

pollen grains monosulcate;

ovary 3-carpellate, placentation axile, usually with septal nectaries;

style terminal;

stigmas punctate, discoid, or 3-lobed.
Fruits

capsular, rarely baccate, dehiscence loculicidal, apical.
Seeds

usually winged or flattened.

Aloaceae
Distribution
Africa; Madagascar; Arabia; and Atlantic islands [All introduced]
Discussion

Genera 5, species ca. 700 (1 genus, 2 species in the flora).

Aloaceae are closely related to and included by some authors in Liliaceae.

The juice of some Aloe species is used to make a purgative called bitter aloe; active ingredients include aloin and other anthraquinones. Additionally, the thick, mucilaginous gel of some species is widely used to treat minor thermal burns, itching, and sunburn.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 410. Treatment authors: Walter C. Holmes, Heather L. White.
Parent taxa
Subordinate taxa
Name authority Batsch
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

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