Yes I looked it up and I believe that it is Alworthia. The tag when I bought the plant says "medicinal aloe" and has a picture of green aloe that looks very much like regular aloe vera. The back says "caution, harmful if consumed." Is this true of alworthia? Is alworthia gel medicinal?

Hi...thanks to all of you for your replies. Let me give you some background on this plant: Absolutely nothing has changed with this plant's environment. It only gets afternoon sun...it's been in the same spot for 2 years. I did have it in a much smaller pot. After doing research, what I largely read was that the growth of aloe plants is inhibited by the size of the container...that once it gets to a certain size, you must put it in a larger container to maintain growth and health. It was about a year ago that I put it in the larger pot, and it grew even larger. It's potted in regular miracle grow potting soil that I bought at Lowe's...there's gravel in the lower portion of the pot to help with drainage. It's always been in this kind of potting soil, and up until now, thrived...growing twice the size that it was when I brought it back from Aruba in a ziplock bag (with a wet paper towel in it). I don't water it often...maybe every 2-3 weeks. When I first brought it home, I read about how aloe doesn't like a really wet environment. So I made it a point not to over water. Sitting on the other side of the door from this aloe plant is another aloe plant (of another kind...it looks different) in the exact same container and soil. I did the same thing with it about a year ago in that I transplanted it into it's current pot. Since then, it has grown 3-4 times its original size...I mean thriving! That's what I don't understand. Two aloe plants...in identical environments...one thriving while the other one is suffering (although the suffering one was thriving up until a month ago).

Sorry to disagree, but no, one shouldn't necessarily cut back on watering these Aloes in Winter (or maybe just cut it back a bit). Many Aloes can grow all winter long & since they bloom in Feb. I definitely wouldn't cut back watering in winter -- unless you're keeping them, pretty cool. In NYC, next to cold window over warm radiator, my Aloes stay in growth all winter.

Okay, I understand. I'm going to keep these two in pretty small pots until they have more roots established. I don't mean tiny pots- just like medium sized I would say. And I will add some small rocks to the top in order to stabilize the plants. Today I unpotted both of my aloes to see how much damage there could be and if any, it would allow me to remove the damage and let them callus over before repotting this weekend or so. The roots of the smaller aloe look pretty good to me- there is plenty of new growth (including new baby roots and additional growth on the longer, older ones). This was the aloe with the two leaves on the bottom that turned yellow and shriveled up- which I was told was normal and the plant was just shedding the older leaves. These leaves were easily removed from the base with gentle pulling. Just wondering if you guys agree with me and the roots look good and this one can be planted as normal in the new gritty soil. Two pictures of the smaller aloe: Next, was the bigger aloe which I wasn't happy with. As can be expected, it's roots did suffer. So I trimmed off the dying roots and was left with barely anything. But I was happy to see it has one new root growing! So there is something left there (: My question with this one is should I remove the dark part of old stem that is under the baby root? I don't know if this is rotten or not, it's soft and dark but not mushy or smelly. I'm thinking I should remove it because it's not doing any good but will that much trauma to the plant cause more suffering? Bigger aloe: One more thing, I read about putting cinnamon on any cuts or damage upon transplanting in order to prevent infection. Should this be done immediately or after the plant has had some time to callus? Thanks in advance for any help (: