Aloe cooperi

Not to be confused with a ’70s rock singer with unmown, grasslike hair, Aloe cooperi hails from the dry, open grasslands in the Natal Mountains of South Africa where it was discovered in 1860. The narrow, green, V-shaped leaves are edged with a row of tiny white bumps. The fast-multiplying, 2′ wide deciduous clumps are topped in midsummer with 2′ terminal flower spikes of dangling coral-orange flowers. Both the young shoots and flowers are edible and considered a delicacy where they grow wild…they must not have McDonald’s yet. Here’s to McAloe’s.