Dracaena draco

Dracaena Draco

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Dracaena draco

Dracaena draco, the Canary Islands Dragon Tree or Drago is a subtropical Dragon Tree

Dracaena (plant)

Dracaena is a genus of about 40 species of trees and succulent plant shrubs classified in the family Ruscaceae in the APG II system, or, according to some treatments, separated into a family of their own, Dracaenaceae or in the Agavaceae....
native to the Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands are a Spain archipelago which, in turn, forms one of the Spanish Autonomous Communities and an Outermost Region of the European Union....
, Cape Verde

Cape Verde

The Republic of Cape Verde , is an archipelago nation located in the Macaronesia ecoregion of the North Atlantic Ocean, off the western coast of Africa....
, Madeira

Madeira

Madeira is a Portugal archipelago in the north Atlantic Ocean that lies between and . It is one of the Autonomous regions of Portugal, with Madeira Island and Porto Santo Island being the only inhabited islands....
, Azores

Azores

The Azores is a Portugal archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,500 km from Lisbon and about 3,900 km from the east coast of North America....
, and locally in western Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
.

The tree is characterised by a single or multiple trunk growing up to 12 m tall (rarely more), with a dense umbrella-shaped canopy of thick leaves. It grows slowly, requiring about ten years to reach 1 m tall. Young trees remain with only a single stem; branching occurs when the tree flowers, when two side shoots at the base of the flower panicle continue the growth as a fork in the stem.

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Encyclopedia

Dracaena draco, the Canary Islands Dragon Tree or Drago is a subtropical Dragon Tree

Dracaena (plant)

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands are a Spain archipelago which, in turn, forms one of the Spanish Autonomous Communities and an Outermost Region of the European Union....
, Cape Verde

Cape Verde

The Republic of Cape Verde , is an archipelago nation located in the Macaronesia ecoregion of the North Atlantic Ocean, off the western coast of Africa....
, Madeira

Madeira

Azores

The Azores is a Portugal archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,500 km from Lisbon and about 3,900 km from the east coast of North America....
, and locally in western Morocco

Morocco

Monocotyledon

Monocotyledons or monocots are one of two major groups of flowering plants that are traditionally recognised, the other being dicotyledons or dicots....
ous, Dracaena draco does not display annual rings and age can only be estimated by the number of branch forking occurrences (indicating the number of flowering episodes) and measuring the frequency of flowering (less than annual). Some specimens are believed to be up to 650 years old; the oldest is growing at Icod de los Vinos

Icod de los Vinos

Icod de los Vinos is a municipality in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on the island of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands , located in the northwest part of the island....
in northwest Tenerife

Tenerife

Tenerife, a Spain island, is the largest of the seven Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. Tenerife has an area of 2034.38 square kilometers, and 886,033 inhabitants, which make it the most populated island of the Canary Islands and Spain....
.

The recently discovered wild populations in western Morocco have been described as a separate subspecies, Dracaena draco subsp. ajgal, while those on Gran Canaria

Gran Canaria

Gran Canaria is an island of the Canary Islands, an archipelago located in the Atlantic Ocean 210 km from the northwest coast of Africa. It is located southeast of Tenerife and west of Fuerteventura....
are sometimes distinguished as a separate species Dracaena tamaranae.

When the bark or leaves are cut, it secretes a reddish resin

Resin

Resin is a hydrocarbon secretion of many plants, particularly Pinophyta. It is valued for its chemical constituents and uses, such as varnishes and adhesives, as an important source of raw materials for organic synthesis, or for incense and perfume....
known as Dragon's blood
Dragon's blood

Dragon's blood is a bright red resin that is obtained from different species of a number of distinct plant genera: Croton , Dracaena , Daemonorops, Calamus rotang and Pterocarpus....
, used in ancient Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
and mediaeval magic

Magic (paranormal)

Magic, sometimes known as sorcery, is a conceptual system that asserts human ability to control or predict the nature through Mysticism, paranormal or supernatural means....
and alchemy

Alchemy

Alchemy , a part of the Occult Tradition, is both a philosophy and a practice with an aim of achieving ultimate wisdom as well as immortality, involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of several substances described as possessing unusual properties....
, then believed by the users to be the dried blood of dragons

European dragon

European dragons are legendary creatures in folklore and mythology among the overlapping culture of Europe. The word for dragon in Germanic mythology and its descendants is wiktionary:worm , meaning snake or serpent....
.

Bibliography

.
(photo gallery).
The climate requirements for Dracaena draco defined by its borders: , northern Azores Islands and , Victoria, Australia (photos).
Benabid, A. & Cuzin, F. (1997). Dragon tree (Dracaena draco subsp. ajgal Benabid et Cuzin) populations in Morocco: Taxonomical, biogeographical and phytosociological values. Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences Serie III Sciences de la Vie 320(3): 267-277.