I must admit that when I was growing up, I was more of an animal person than a plant person (sorry Prof. Bazely!) and yet here I am today, the proud owner of the all the Aloe vera plants in the pictures! You may be thinking, why or how did I come to own all these Aloe’s then? Well, there’s an interesting and unique story behind it; one that ultimately resulted in the Aloe vera becoming my favourite plant species and also led me loving plants equally as much as animals!
This story begins in my final year of high school when my biology teacher assigned the class presentations that were to be based on one of the topics from a given list. As I was going through the list, one of the topics stood out – the Aloe vera plant. At the time, I had recently tried a juice that had chunks of Aloe vera jelly in it (I know, sounds gross, but I highly recommend you try it at least once), but the main reason it stood out is that I knew my mom had an Aloe plant at home that I figured I could use as a prop to help get a better grade. Luckily, no one else wanted to present on the Aloe so I was able to get my choice!
When I got home that night, I asked my mom where the Aloe plant we had was. She told me where and when I went to get it, I discovered that it was dead because the room it was in received no sunlight! After I politely reminded her that plants required light to survive, I went out and bought a new small Aloe plant. A couple of weeks later I presented, and with the help of that little plant, I did well!
Two or three years later, that same Aloe had grown to be just over three feet tall and had also produced tons of really tiny baby Aloe pups that have since grown into all of the Aloe’s in the pictures! Unfortunately, my house began to run out of space for all the Aloe’s I had, so I had to sell the original Aloe. The person who ended up buying it was an older Polish gentleman who told me he drove all the way from the Muskoka region to get it. He said that he planned on flying it out to his aunt all the way in Poland using his private plane – she had apparently been seeing a naturopathic doctor who told her to that she should get a mature Aloe plant for its leaves which are said to have many naturopathic “benefits” (see: https://www.naturalhealers.com/holistic-health/aloe-vera-ultimate-guide/). I told him how to care for the Aloe plant so he could pass on the information, and then helped him pack it in his car before he drove off. Just like that my Aloe vera plant was off to Poland and I had become an international plant dealer!
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 