Characteristics
Typically, Aloe comosa has thick, succulent blades approximately 2 feet long. The leaf surface is glabrous and the curving of the lamina is involute. The morphology of its leaves are simple and have a lanceolate leaf shape that tend to curve towards the tips. The edges of the leaves are entire and are lined with spiny, tooth-like, brown-red thorns. The fleshy blades have a whorled leaf insertion as they emerge from the rosette which sits on top of the erect stem.
Aloe comosa is considered a tree aloe having a single, unbranched stem which may attain heights of approximately 3 meters. As it matures and grows in height, Aloe comosa retains its dry, dead leaves and forms a tangled skirt or beard. Tree aloe bark differs from woody dicot bark in that it doesn’t have a phellogen, which is the meristematic tissue that differentiates into the bark. In essence, aloe bark is actually overlapping, irregular layers of incomplete bark tissues.
A study was published in the science journal Oecologia by W. Bond (1983) on the purpose of retaining dead leaves by several species of tree aloe. Researchers before Bond have set forth studies to try to understand the function of such an adaptation. A few suggestions were that dead-leaf retention protected bare bark from the sun during the day and the cold at night. On the contrary, another researcher believed that the thorny mass of leaves could deter unwanted wild life in search for water, nectar, or seeds. Bond, on the other hand, proposed that dead-leaf retention was selected to provide thick, fire resistant bark in a fire-prone habitat.
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