Unknown Aloe?

[Woodlily74]

This one stays small 1 ft. x 1 ft. and gets dark gray purple in the Winter. No bloom yet.

[Woodlily74]

No white spots on the leafs, maybe Blue Elf?

[Stan]

I think so. I've noticed Blue Elf retains the color even in shade,in winter. Not many other Aloe's that look similar do that I know of.

[Woodlily74]

Thanx Stan. The leaves are thin enough to curl as if they were made to funnel water down to the main stem and root.

[Woodlily74]

Aloe Blue Elf for camparison to unknown aloe. They look very different to me. I dont think they are the same plant?

[Stan]

That last isnt Blue Elf. Not in any way I've seen them. That last- as a guess- has more of a juvenile trunking Aloe species form.

[Azuleja]

What about it looks off to you? I have lots of Blue Elf in all kinds of states, and it looks fine to me. I'm not convinced the first plant is Blue Elf though.

[Stan]

Its red. Maybe I've not let them go that dry. The first photo is only of a 4" pot and the Aloe could be a light starved blue Elf. I just dug one up last week or two. Blue despite winter under tall weed grasses.
Of course its all a guess as to for sure in Wood's photos.

[Azuleja]

Here are a bunch of offsets growing in morning only sun. The second photo is the parent plant which just finished blooming and gets a lot of direct sun. It gets frequent water.

[Woodlily74]

Well I was some what certin the 2nd of my pic is Blue Elf but it was rescued and in very bad shape. It does have the trunk and color of Blue Elf I've seen. The 1st plant pic of my unk is more refined looking and has no trunk just a rosette. The color is not like Blue Elf Ive seen. More blueish grey. Im hoping the bloom will give more clues to ID. Thanx yall

[Stan]

I moved my blue elf to full sun in the front yard last week. So ,maybe it will redden. But,its always been blue in the yard with the mangoes and cycads. Just in more shade.

[Woodlily74]

2nd image of my unk aloe

[Gee.S]

Sideways Photos

[Woodlily74]

Retry sideways pic

[Gee.S]

Awesome!

[Spination]

I keep scrolling up and down comparing the latest shot of the unk aloe with Azul's elfie pics, and I can't delineate any meaningful differences. General shape, leaf form, marginals. Having a lot of trouble trying to formulate an argument why it isn't Blue Elf...

[Azuleja]

Blue Elf leaves stack on top of each other and form a small trunk. At that size I'd expect to see more of that effect but it looks like a stemless rosette. Maybe as it gets bigger it will become more clear.

[Woodlily74]

Side by side Unk Aloe v Blue Elf

[Woodlily74]

Blue Elf at the big box store that begins with L.

[Woodlily74]

Why is Aloe Blue Elf not affected by aloe mite?

[Woodlily74]

My unknown Blue Elf started to produce inflorescence. I'll post more images as it grows. I'm hoping for positive ID.

[Agavemonger]

Looks a lot like Aloe X 'Spinosissima' to me.

The Monger

[Spination]

Monger, I think you helped ID this one for me a while back, as X 'Spinosissima'. It had been given to me as several cuttings, and I didn't know what it was. Thought it might have been 'Blue Elf', but you helped me straighten that out. It's pretty different from the one here...

2016 04 11 Aloe Blue Elf Not Quite b X750.jpg (430.68 KiB) Viewed 2197 times

[Agavemonger]

Yeah, I first thought so also. But young shaded 'Spinosissima' plants aren't often either as full, as green, or as loaded with tubercles as your excellent specimen in the photo above. It would probably be best to withhold judgment until the plants get larger. Woodlillie's potting them both together will certainly tell the story in about six months or so!

The Monger

[Agave_fan]

Woodlily, did you ever take photos of the flower on your unknown? I have a similar looking unknown that is producing a flower and would like to compare photos of the inflorescence if you happened to take photos of yours.