Aloiampelos includes seven species of scrambling/rambling aloes. They're the least succulent of all the aloes and are endemic to the southern provinces of South Africa.
Aloiampelos ciliaris is the type species and is endemic to the Eastern Cape Province. It's a sprawling, very untidy plant with weak stems up to 6m long/tall so needs support. The leaves are relatively thin and barely succulent.
One of my plants is shown here growing at the back of our porch where it thrives. The temperature in its cosy home never drops below 10 degrees and it's watered throughout the year. If kept cold and dry in the winter it's unlikely to survive let alone thrive.
The first flowers produced by my plant in Scotland are shown here. I've flowered it before down south in deepest Bedfordshire but that was at the back of the GH and I never took much notice of it.
I thank Topsy (aka Suzanne) for providing me with my current material.
The other plants in the porch in this shot are Cleistocactus chrysocephalus and part of a huge plant of Aloe vera.
Interestingly in contrast Aloiampelos striatula is one of few frost-hardy aloes. My plants are cuttings from Gordon Rowley's plant that survived for many years outdoors in an unheated cold frame in Reading.
