The name Dracaena draco refers to the colour of the red resin when it is dry. This endangered species is native to the Canary Islands.
Identity Card
Taxonomy
Detailed Informations
Etymology
Dracaena means “female dragon” in Latin. Draco means “dragon” in Latin, in reference to the dry sap’s colour.
Description and flowering period
It is a slow-growing tree reaching up to 20 meters in height in its natural habitat, although it seldom reaches over a few meters in cultivation. Its thick stems are covered in leaf-scars and once aged, develop a scaly bark and can grow into really large trunks. When the stem is cut, a red sap spills, reminiscent of the blood of dragons, hence its common name. The persistent, sword-shaped, blue-green leaves form a rosette borne at the end of each branch. Flowering occurs in the centre of the rosette. The greenish-white flowers, borne in panicles (an inflorescence in which the main axis has several branches, each of which is also branched). The fruits are berries ranging from orange to red. After flowering, new growth occurs through the development of a few new buds below the dead flower-stalk, thus causing the branch to ramify. This peculiar growth-habit is what gives the tree its characteristic umbrella shape.
Habitat
It requires a full-sun or part-shade location in a warm climate. It is drought-resistant.
Uses
- Ornamental.
- Craftsmanship: The bark was used by the Guanches (first Canary Islands’ inhabitants) to make coffins. The red resin was used and traded by Romans as a colourant (used in rupestrian paintings found in Morocco).
- Spiritual & medicinal: The tree’s resin was used to embalm kings and rulers’ bodies. The red gum or dragon-blood was highly sought after in the middle-ages by alchemists and healers who thought it had mystical powers and healing properties.
Notes
In the Canary Islands, where it can be found at altitudes of 200 to 700 meters, it can reach a venerable age. The species is however threatened: this emblematic tree has been widely collected to be planted in hotel and private gardens. This high demand which started in the seventies with the development of tourism, has stripped the Canary’s mountains of many of its mature specimens.
Translated by: François Saint-Hillier – MNHN