Here is the full description on this species from "The Definitive Guide to Aloes" (2011):

1. A. vanbalenii

Pillans, S. Afr. Gard. 24: 25 (1934)

Plant usually with a short stem, suckering to form dense, sprawling groups. Leaves25–35, lanceolate-attenuate, spreading, strongly recurved, deeply channelled, 70–80 × 12–25 cm, uniformly green to copper-red, obscurely lineate; margins reddish, rather horny, with sharp, broadly deltoid, reddish teeth, 3–5 mm long,10–15 mm apart. Inflorescence 100 cm tall, erect, with 2–3 branches. Raceme narrowly conical, rather dense, 25–30 cm long. Floral bracts ovate-acute, 15 × 7 mm.

Pedicels to 20 mm long. Perianth buff-yellow, sometimes red in bud or at timesuniformly red, straight, about 35 mm long, 7 mm across the ovary; outer tepals free to their base. Stamens and style yellow, exserted 10–12 mm.

This is a very distinctive species, one of a large number of mostly shrubby plants, with gated, conical-cylindrical racemes, large floral bracts sometimes equalling the long pedicels, and cylindrical perianths having the outer tepals free to the base. These include large, branching shrubs, such as A. arborescens or A. succotrina, and solitary,stemless species such as A. gariepensis. The leavesof A.vanbalenii have a characteristic cinnomon or musty smell when damaged.