The Aloe ferox, or Bitter Aloe, the exclamation mark of the Eastern Karoo veld. (Photo: Chris Marais)
By Julienne Du Toit – 23 May 2024
When the landscape turns cold, bleak and often snowy, the Aloe ferox lifts its bright spears of red flowers all across the southern Karoo.
Everywhere you go along the southern edges of the Karoo, a slow-blooming colour splash straddles the Western Cape and Eastern Cape, brightening every north-facing hillside with colonies of ferocious thorn-lined leaves, upright and motionless against winter’s icy winds…