Amazing Trees

 Dragon's Blood Tree

Scientific Classification

Scientific Name -  Dracaena cinnabari

Domain               - Eukaryota

Kingdom             - Plantae

Phylum               - Magnoliophyta

Class                    - Monocots

Order                   - Asparagales

Family                 - Asparagaceae

Genus                  - Dracaena

Species                - D.cinnabari

Dracaena cinnabari, the Socotra dragon tree or Dragon blood tree, is a dragon tree native to the Socotra archipelago, part of Yemen, located in the Arabian Sea. It is named after the blood like color of the red sap that the trees produce. Dracaena cinnabari, the dragon blood tree, is a unique tree that is one of the most peculiar trees in the world. The tree has a distinctive external shape that makes it look like a huge umbrella, as the leaves grow only at the end of branches and point upwards.

Dragon trees are native to Cape Verde, Morocco, Spain's Canary Islands, and Madeira, Portugal. The dragon tree is still found on five of the seven Canary Islands, but only a few hundred trees are left. Two hundred miles off the coast of Yemen is Socotra, a remote island known as the jewel of the Arabia, where a species of otherworldly tree known as dragon's blood has bloomed for millenia. The tree has a distinctive external shape that makes it look like a huge umbrella, as the leaves grow only at the end of branches and point upwards. It has many branches; it grows by dichotomy, which means that each branch is divided into two until the leaves finally grow on the branches' ends. Dragon's blood tree can grow to more than 30 feet in height and live for 600 years.

The dragon tree is an evergreen like plant that varies in size, from a small ornamental plant to a small tree. Dracaena species plants contain saponins which may cause drooling, vomiting, weakness, incoordination and dilated pupils when ingested.

 Today, its most common use is for digestive health. It was once thought to speed wound healing, and some healers used it for respiratory issues. Dragon's blood was also employed for different gastrointestinal conditions.

😊😊😊