I’ve got Aloe growing in profusion on my front porch. It seems to like it there. It has a spire. Babies abound among the sessile fronds. It’s a beautiful thing, it’s a healing, welcoming, generous plant.
If only we could know the magic of plants: who they are, how they work, what they do - we would be rich indeed, that’s my thought as I ponder the profusion of aloes.
Old don Juan was a plant guy. He could talk to plants, apparantly, according to the locals myths. That was the gossip around town when Carlos Castaneda showed up looking for an informant among the Yaqui Indian community, someone who could teach him about the medicinal uses of plants. Old don Juan could walk out into the Sonoran desert and in 15 minutes find a half dozen plants with medicinal value of some sort.
I’ve had many Aloes and for a long time, here on my porch. Occasionally I give them away to neighbors and friends in an attempt to control the population explosion.
I can’t possibly eat down that many. Yes, I do eat them. Cut off a leaf, open it up with a knife and scoop out all the gel with a spoon. That goes in the smoothie. Along with the frozen mango, one ripe banana, a few tablespoons of goat yogurt and some almond milk.
I also use it on cuts, abrasions and sunburn, wherever it may be. Sometimes on top of my head. The sunburn I mean.
This bloom stalk is the first I’ve ever witnessed on my Aloes. Assumably it will rise up high, tend its antenna and open a spray of flowers for the bugs to come and get some nectar. Share the pollen with other blooming antennas in the vicinity. I think it’s just the greatest thing.
I’m friends with my Aloe. I’m no don Juan but I take care of them. When the freezing cold blasts of winter come I take them inside. Otherwise they would turn purple and die. I’ve seen it happen.
I greet them every morning when I get my bike out and trundle it down the steps into the driveway. Hey how are you Aloe I say or something like that, thanks for being here. They’re the ones who lead me out into the new day and they’re the ones who welcome me back home.
Of course Aloe has been used throughout history. It shows up in the Bible. And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, it says in John 19:39, referring to the entombment of Jesus.
It was recommended by Dioscorides, the first century Greek doctor, for wounds, binding, insomnia, stomach disorders, pain, constipation, hemorrhoids, itching, headache, loss of hair, mouth and gum diseases, kidney ailments, blistering, skin care, sunburn, and blemishes.
The ancient Egyptians praised the many medicinal values of Aloe way back in the BC days. It was written about in the Ebers Papyrus. That was hieroglyphics.
Aloe Vera, called Sábila in Spanish, Ghrita-kumari in Sanskrit, Jadam in Malaysian, Lu-hui in Chinese, Erva Babosa in Portuguese and Aloe Barbadenisis in scientific nomenclature, has been recognized for its medicinal properties for thousands of years and all over the world.
Why does it have such medicinal properties? Aloe is a member of the Xeroid family of plants and they have the ability to completely close their stomata. Stomata are the pores in the leaves that allow the plant to ‘breathe’, but for a tropical desert plant like Aloe it sometimes is beneficial to close the pores to conserve water. In fact the fronds will stay plump with water even if you haven’t watered it in a while. They can also close a wound or a cut, like if you cut off a leaf or a portion of a leaf, it will close up like a tube of toothpaste. Well not really like a tube of toothpaste more like sealing off the chips bag with a clothes pin. Sort of. Anyways it seems to have this nature to want to heal, like that’s its purpose in life - to heal and mend and close the wound. That’s how I read it. But I’m not don Juan.
Thank you Aloe Vera for standing by me, and for your lovely spire.
podcast soundtrack :: 03:49 The Sura Quintet - Cosmic Illusion
Some of the information in this post came from Aloe Vera Handbook by Max B. Skousen. It’s a book I had buried in my storage room until I started unloading all that and going thru it. I discovered alot of stuff. Personal letters from 40 years ago. Photographs from living on the beach days in Mexico. Poetry written in another era. It was kind of like an archaeological dig.
Aloe Vera on my porch