Bird visits increase when the flowers appear. Nectar and pollen are important food and drink sources for many bird and insect species.

And the price of the not so free meal? Just allow some pollen stuck to your feathers from an earlier Aloe marlothii visit to touch the sticky stigma of one of our new flowers and we're quits, your account settled! As a valued customer, you are so welcome to enjoy our hospitality for as long as you like. All the food you can eat is on the house.

But we'd appreciate our arrangement not to be brought to the attention of any passing health inspectors, as they might consider our practices to be slightly unhygienic, even messy. If you see what we mean?

One large A. marlothii inflorescence may be a very busy restaurant on a sunny morning.