Species
+

Dracaena draco (L.) L.

Canary Island Dragon Tree, Canary Islands Dragon Tree, Dragon Tree, Dragontree

Climate known 87 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Dracaena draco, the Canary Islands dragon tree or drago, is a subtropical tree in the genus Dracaena, native to the Macaronesia archipelago and northwestern mainland Africa.

Text from Wikipedia, “Dracaena draco”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
(L.) L.
Native to
Canary Is.
Wild records
783 in range· 251 open

At a glance

Warmest month
23°C
Aug, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
385mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Dec 75 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–49DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Dracaena, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 385 mm a year, wettest December at 75 mm, driest July at 2 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 49 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Asparagus draco L.; Dracaena boerhaavei Ten.; Dracaena draco subsp. draco; Dracaena draco var. angustifolia Schult.; Dracaena draco var. laxifolia Hayne and 15 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Dracaena, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (297 mm of 385 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 16.6 °C against a yearly mean of 18.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 385 mm a year, wettest December at 75 mm, driest July at 2 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

385 mm a year at the habitat, 297 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 75 mm, driest July at 2 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 167 mm to 654 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 49 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 49 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 13.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 13.8 °C, the absolute minimum 12.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 24.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.5 °C in February (across the envelope cells 10.4 °C to 16.6 °C), warmest day 22.8 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 17 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Aug; mean night from 15 °C in Feb to 21 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 385 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 164 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 12.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 24.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°24.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)12.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 22–49RH 59–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 164 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C17 / 13–1817 / 14–1817 / 14–1918 / 15–1919 / 17–2021 / 19–2222 / 21–2423 / 22–2523 / 21–2422 / 19–2320 / 16–2118 / 14–20
Night °C15 / 10–1715 / 10–1715 / 11–1715 / 12–1716 / 13–1818 / 16–2020 / 18–2121 / 19–2220 / 18–2219 / 16–2118 / 13–2016 / 11–18
Rain mm55 / 25–8458 / 26–9945 / 18–7322 / 8–378 / 3–143 / 1–72 / 0–43 / 1–612 / 4–1838 / 15–7164 / 24–10575 / 40–142
DLI24 / 20–2630 / 27–3338 / 35–4043 / 41–4547 / 45–4849 / 46–5048 / 46–4944 / 43–4639 / 37–4132 / 29–3425 / 22–2822 / 18–24
RH %59 / 55–6360 / 55–6460 / 53–6361 / 56–6461 / 55–6663 / 50–6762 / 42–6863 / 44–6863 / 52–6763 / 57–6661 / 57–6461 / 58–64

Each figure is the median across the 164 grid cells holding the 744 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1232:3265 (28.375, -16.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 24.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 164 distinct grid cells holding the 744 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1232:3265 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.50_-16.875, lapse-corrected +197 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 335 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCanary Is.· introduced: Baleares, Sardegna, Tunisia, Azores, Madeira, New Zealand North
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker28.417, -16.55 · in the densest population, 746 records (95% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 783 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 251 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 12 km away. 400 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 39 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 783 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Dracaena dracoDracaena dracoDracaena dracoDracaena dracoDracaena dracoDracaena dracoDracaena dracoDracaena draco

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Donald Davesne, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Olivier Argagnon, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Dracaena draco, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Diaprepes abbreviatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae): Host Plant Associations
S. E. Simpson, H. N. Nigg, Nancy C. Coile, RJ Adair (1996) · Environmental Entomology
Steroidal Saponins from the Bark of Dracaena draco and Their Cytotoxic Activities
Antonio G. González, Juan C. Hernández, Francisco León, Juan I. Padrón (2003) · Journal of Natural Products
Steroidal saponins from the aerial parts of Dracaena draco and their cytostatic activity on HL-60 cells
Yoshihiro Mimaki, Minpei Kuroda, Atsushi Ide, Aiko Kameyama (1999) · Phytochemistry
Identification of 7,4′‐Dihydroxy‐5‐methoxyflavylium in “Dragon's Blood”: To Be or Not To Be an Anthocyanin
Maria João Melo, Micaela M. Sousa, A. Jorge Parola, J. Sérgio Seixas de Melo (2006) · Chemistry - A European Journal
Characterisation of the metabolites of an antibacterial endophyte Botryodiplodia theobromae Pat. of Dracaena draco L. by LC–MS/MS
Ahmed Zaher, Ahmad M. Moharram, Richard W. Davis, Peter Panizzi (2015) · Natural Product Research
Phenolic Compounds of Dragon's Blood from Dracaena draco
Antonio G. González, Francisco León, Lázaro Sánchez-Pinto, Juan I. Padrón (2000) · Journal of Natural Products
Extraction and characterization of novel cellulose fibers from Dracaena draco plant
Abdelwaheb Hadou, Ahmed Belaadi, Hassan Alshahrani, Mohammad K.A. Khan (2023) · Materials Chemistry and Physics
Icogenin, a new cytotoxic steroidal saponin isolated from Dracaena draco
Juan C. Hernández, Francisco León, José Quintana, Francisco Estévez (2004) · Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry
Dragon's Blood from Dracaena draco, Structure of Novel Honoisoflavanoids
Gianluca Nasini, Lorenzo Camarda, Lucio Merlini (1983) · Heterocycles
Populations de dragonnier (Dracaena draco L subsp. ajgal Benabid et Cuzin) au Maroc: valeurs taxinomique, biogéographique et phytosociologique
Abdelmalek Benabid, Fabrice Cuzin (1997) · Comptes Rendus de l Académie des Sciences - Series III - Sciences de la Vie
Flavans of dragon’s blood from Dracaena draco and Dracaena tamaranae
Antonio González, Francisco León, Juan C. Hernández, Juan I. Padrón (2003) · Biochemical Systematics and Ecology
Dracaena draco L. fruit: Phytochemical and antioxidant activity assessment
Branca M. Silva, Rui Santos, Lídia S. Mendes, Paula Guedes de Pinho (2010) · Food Research International

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Dracaena 8 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 46 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.