The typical yellow-green of the rough-surfaced Aloe melanacantha leaves is lost on the lowest live leaves as they become marred from losing their sap. Old leaves remain, gradually joining the persistent dead ones around the rosette bases where they conceal the short, branched stems from sight.

The dead leaves harden into woody shields, retaining their position at the base of the ball-shaped rosette here, unlike some other Aloe species on which dead leaves distort randomly with desiccation.

The spines on the margins and keels in picture are pale yellow when young, black when old (Van Wyk and Smith, 2003).