Dragon tree

The islands have their own subspecies of dragon tree – its red resin, known as dragon’s blood, was once a prized dye and medicine.

The dragon tree has a thick trunk and an umbrella-shaped crown of repeatedly forking limbs, each ending in tufts of long, sword-shaped, grey-green leaves. It grows very slowly – it branches only after flowering, which happens once every ten to twenty years, so a tree’s age is estimated from the number of branchings. When the bark is wounded it oozes a dark red resin that hardens in the air. The species grows wild in the Canary Islands, Madeira, Morocco and Cape Verde, everywhere a rare and protected plant.

Significance in the country

Cape Verde is home to the subspecies Dracaena draco subsp. caboverdeana, which survives in the wild mainly on the steep slopes of São Nicolau and Santo Antão. Islanders are proud of their dragon trees and often plant them beside houses and churches.

Where it grows

Wild mainly on the steep slopes and in the ravines of São Nicolau and Santo Antão, more rarely on Fogo, Brava and in the mountains of Santiago (Serra Malagueta); also planted in settlements.

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