Aloes

Raising its fleshy leaves in tight, toothed rosettes, instinctively sculptural, the aloe is a marvel of the desert. From the Arabian Peninsula to Mediterranean cloisters, from medieval apothecaries to the bouquets of Art Deco interiors, the species has crossed centuries and continents. Laurent Charles crowned the summit of this floor lamp with it: at the end of a slender shaft, a rosette of pointed leaves opens in a star around a sandblasted glass cup from which the light leaps upward. The stem rises from a round brass base. The rosette serves as a vegetal shade. The torchère lights the ceiling from the heart of the plant.