Photo by Rod Waddington

DRAGON BLOOD TREE

• it’s in all caps simply because it’s a cool name
• the scientific name for this plant is Dracaena cinnabari
• they’re native to the Socotra island chain in the Indian Ocean
• it looks like something of a living umbrella
• with it’s branches-on-bottom-leaves-on-top dichotomy
• this strange growth form is called “dracoid habitus”
• which basically means that leaves only grow on the tips of the tree’s youngest branches
• oh
• and it’s called the dragon blood tree because it secretes a dark red resin
• almost forgot to clear that one up

Photo by Hannes Rada

• there are 100 plant species in the genus Dracaena
• but D. cinnabari is one of the six species that grow into a tree form
• this genus is believed to be derived from Tethyan flora
• or plants from the Triassic period
• which occurred about 200 million years ago
• old things are valuable, are they not?
• D. cinnabari is a remnant of a biome that existed millions of years ago
• but now as tourism and logging develop
• its habitat is being encroached upon
• it’s not that Dragon Blood trees are being chopped down
• it’s that their populations are being fragmented due to human developments
• there are also non human causes of this tree’s declining success
• Socotra seems to simply be drying up
• over the last few hundred years

Photo by Stefan Greens

• luckily
• Socotra is a certified World Heritage Site
• and is also considered a Center for Plant Diversity and is an Endemic Bird Area
• so there are a lot of conservation efforts being made to preserve this island region
• especially for D. cinnabari
• it’s considered an umbrella species (perfect, right?)
• they are an irreplaceable part of the Socotra ecosystem as they are roosting places for birds and shade providers for low growing plants
• and much more
• by protecting the Dragon Blood tree
• many other organisms are also being indirectly protected

What a lovely conservation strategy. Time and time again, the natural world shows us how tightly woven it is.