This succulent species can be seen flowering in the Continents Apart House.
The genus Aloe comprises 350 species of mainly succulents but it also contains climbers and woody shrub-like species from Cape Verde Islands, tropical and southern Africa, Madagascar and the Arabian Peninsula. All members of the genus have tubular or bell-shaped flowers. A. broomii is a threatened species from the Cape Province and Orange Free State of South Africa, where it grows on rocky slopes at altitudes between 1000 and 2000m. It produces a succulent, basal rosette whose leaf margins are toothed. The inflorescence is a dense spike reaching 1.5m in height and formed of tightly packed bracts. This species presumably takes its common name of snake aloe from the appearance of the bracts which resemble the scales of a snake. Much of the flower is concealed behind the bracts and it is only the stamens and stigmas which are revealed on flowering.