Though the dragon's blood tree is highly widespread, it has become fragmented due to the development that has occurred in its habitats. This is putting more pressure on the vegetation through the process of logging, overgrazing, woodcutting and infrastructure of development plans. Conservation Threats Ī map of the Socotra (Soqotra) archipelagoĪlthough most of its ecological habitats are still intact, there is an increasing population with industrial and tourism development. It is considered a remnant of the Mio- Pliocene Laurasian subtropical forests that are now almost extinct due to the extensive desertification of North Africa. cinnabari is thought to have derived from the Tethyan flora. Evolution Īlong with other plants on Socotra, D.
cinnabari is one of only six species that grow as a tree. Of between 60 and 100 Dracaena species, D. It was first named Pterocarpus draco, but in 1880, the Scottish botanist Isaac Bayley Balfour made a formal description of the species and renamed it as Dracaena cinnabari. cinnabari was made during a survey of Socotra led by Lieutenant Wellsted of the East India Company in 1835. This shade also aids in the survival of seedlings growing beneath the adult tree, explaining why the trees tend to grow closer together. The large, packed crown provides shade and reduces evaporation. The different shape of the dragon's blood tree is an adaptation for survival in arid conditions with low amounts of soil, such as in mountaintops. The berries are usually eaten and dispersed by birds and other animals. The fleshy berry fruit ends up being an orange-red color that contains one to three seeds. The fruits are described as a fleshy berry, which changes from green to black as it gradually ripens. The fruits take five months to completely mature. The plants have inflorescences and bear small clusters of fragrant, white, or green flowers. The flowers tend to grow at the end of the branches. The dragon's blood tree usually produces its flowers around March, though flowering does vary with location. The trunk and the branches of the dragon blood are thick and stout and display dichotomous branching, where each of the branches repeatedly divides into two sections. It branches at maturity to produce an umbrella-shaped crown, with leaves that measure up to 60 cm long and 3 cm wide. Like other monocotyledons, such as palms, the dragon's blood tree grows from the tip of the stem, with the long, stiff leaves borne in dense rosettes at the end (4, 5, 7). The berries exude a deep red resin, known as dragon's blood. The seeds are 4–5 mm in diameter and weigh on average 68 mg. Onychognatus species) and thereby dispersed. As they develop they turn from green to black, and then become orange when ripe. Its fruits are small fleshy berries containing between 1 and 4 seeds.
Branching tends to occur when the growth of the terminal bud is stopped, due to either flowering or traumatic events (e.g. Its leaves are found only at the end of its youngest branches its leaves are all shed every 3 or 4 years before new leaves simultaneously mature. Along with other arborescent Dracaena species it has a distinctive growth habit called "dracoid habitus". cinnabari even has growth zones resembling tree rings found in dicot tree species. Unlike most monocot plants, Dracaena displays secondary growth, D. This evergreen species is named after its dark red resin, which is known as "dragon's blood". The dragon blood tree has a unique and strange appearance, with an "upturned, densely packed crown having the shape of an uprightly held umbrella". Dragon trees at the edge of the gorge in Socotra
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