Blood Spine Succulent

This short leaf succulent grows up to 11 feet (3.4 meters) tall. The wispy stem is gray, and is covered in copious amounts of flexible blood red spines. The slender leaves are a shade of lime green that gradient shifts to dull purple at the top. Small bunches of them grow on thin, orange-yellow branches that are short stubs. The leaves are durable, but take little effort to detach.

It is slow growing, taking 14 years to reach maturity. Once mature, a handful of flowers, with petals that are hazel on the underside and copper on the top, grow at the top, reappearing every year. The flower head is made up of 11 petals in raised layers. It has a strong scent that smells like varnish.

The leaf succulent's skin is thick, the peach flesh is waxy, and the washed-out yellow sap is thin.