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Dragon tree legend and lore

By Chelsie Vandaveer

November 10, 2003

Sponsored BY: Warner Bros.—>Click here for HarryPotterShop.com!

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Suggested Reading—>Click here.

Assorted Killer Savings Garden Links—>Click here.

Killer Picks: Harry Potter Collectibles—>Click here.

Dragon's Blood Sedum, Dracunculus vulgaris—>Click here.

Hungarian Horntail, Chinese Fireball, Harry Potter's Light-up Collectible Wand—>Click here.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Series 2 Action Figure Set, Chess Sets—>Click here.

Legend says that in the distant past, a gigantic basilisk (or dragon) fought an elephant to the death. Both animals were thought to have blood with magical powers. Where the spilled blood mingled, the first dragon tree sprang from the earth. When tapped, the dragon tree oozes deep red resin, Sanguis Draconis or Indian cinnabar, used since ancient times to treat wounds, as an ingredient in perfume, and as a pigment.

From The Herbal, 1633 edition.

Image from John Gerard's The Herbal, 1633 edition.

Dragon trees are known from two groups of islands; the dragon trees of Soqotra (Dracaena cinnabari) probably the "Indian cinnabar" of Pliny the Elder and the dragon trees of the Canary Islands (Dracaena draco).

John Gerard never saw a dragon tree yet he wrote this description in 1597 based on apparently first-hand stories. "This strange and admirable tree groweth very great, resembling the Pine tree, by reason it doth alwaies flourish, and hath his boughes or branches of equal length and bignesse, which are bare and naked, of eight or nine cubits long...the ends of which do shoot out leaves of a cubit and a halfe long...." (The Herbal or General Historie of Plants, J. Gerard, 1633 edition)

Gerard shows a certain gullibility about dragon's blood. He believed the red resin could be only collected at a specified time of the year, "...the tree is covered with a rough bark, very thin, and easie to be...wounded with any small toole...which being so wounded in the Dog daies (midsummer)...yeeld forth drops of a thicke red liquour...called Dragons teares or Sanguis Draconis...." Actually, Balfour reported from his 1880 expedition that dragon's blood was collected after the Soqotran monsoon rains ended in October. Methinks the sailors' stories enhanced the price of dragon's blood.

True credulity is displayed in Gerard's description of the seeds, "a bignesse of Cherries, of a yellowish colour...and divers other report, the forme of a Dragon, having a long necke or gaping mouth; the ridge or backe armed with sharpe prickles...a long taile & foure feet, very easie to be discerned: the figure of it we have set forth unto you...." It is a rather fanciful drawing of a dragon tree seed split open; the inside, an image like an angry iguana on steroids.

The dragon trees of Soqotra are closely related to the dragon trees of the Canary Islands even though the islands have the continent of Africa between them. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has a page about the flora of Soqotra. To view the page and see a photograph of Dracaena cinnabari, click on the link:

http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/soqotra/spectacular/page02.html

The Mediterranean Garden Society has a page about the dragon tree of the Canary Islands. To view photographs and learn more about Dracaena draco, click on the link:

http://www.mediterraneangardensociety.org/plants/Dracaena.draco.cfm

The Mediterranean Garden Society is a wonderful organization and they have a great website. To learn more about gardening Mediterranean-style or to join this society, click on the link:

http://www.mediterraneangardensociety.org

Series: | 1 |  | 2 |  | 3 | 

killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~

Suggested Reading:

Why did Alexander take the island of bliss? Plants that Changed History - November 4, 2003
What are the dragon trees of Soqotra? Weird Plants - November 6, 2003
Where is the marketplace of dragon's blood? What's in a Name? - November 7, 2003
Dragon tree legend and lore Herbal Folklore - November 10, 2003
What is so witching about hazel? Weird Plants - March 11, 2004
What are witches' brooms? Weird Plants - October 31, 2002
Why was a legendary bird named for a palm? What's in a Name? - December 26, 2003

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