Plants caulescent, up to 125 cm tall, often branching into 2-6 stems from near or just below ground level, each stem with about 12 leaves forming a rosette near the top of the stem. Leaves about 25 cm long and 5-6 cm wide at the base, bluish-grey with a reddish tinge, sometimes with a few pale spots on the upper surface; margins with a white, cartilaginous border and white teeth about 1 mm long and 5 mm apart. Inflorescences about 45 cm long with 6-12 spreading primary branches and some secondary branches; terminal racemes on each branch 3-5 cm long bearing several flowers that hang down; bracts about 5 mm long and 2.5 mm wide; pedicels 5-6 mm long. Flowers yellow; perianths about 20 mm long and 6 mm wide across the ovary; anthers exserted about 3-4 mm; stigmas exserted about 3-4 mm.
Aloe retrospiciens grows in rocky ground and is associated with shrubby species of Acacia and Commiphora. It grows at 300-1100 m in Somaliland and Puntland but was not known from elsewhere when the account in the Flora of Somalia was prepared.
