The Gonialoe variegata leaves resembling the front ends of rowing boats alternate in three vertical arrays of six to eight leaves each.

The leaf margins facing up lack prickles or spines but display tiny teeth (or merely notches) along their V-shaped rims, white and cartilaginous.

What pattern may exist in the round or oblong white leaf surface blotches occurs in irregular transversal bands, discontinuous especially near the margins (Reynolds, 1974; Van Wyk and Smith, 2003).