The plants are apparently stemless, bearing a rosette of large, thick, fleshy leaves, or have a shorter or longer (sometimes branched) stem, along which, or towards the end of which and its branches, the generally fleshy leaves are borne.
It is a herb with a rosette of fleshy, oblong leaves, i to 3 in.
As the leaves unfold from the centre of the rosette the impression of the marginal spines is very conspicuous on the still erect younger leaves.
This point is very near the present mosque of Nebi Daniel; and the line of the great east-west "Canopic" street only slightly diverged from that of the modern Boulevard de Rosette.
The ground colour of the jaguar varies greatly, ranging from white to black, the rosette markings in the extremes being but faintly visible.