Dracaena cinnabari

[Fouquieria]

These are from the Socotra islands off Yemen.

I fouond this cool pic on flickr.

-Ron-

[Carlo Morici]

Fantastic, that island still has "forests" of dragon trees. A friend of mine was there four years ago and his pictures are astonishing. Different inidividuals branch at a similar height, while D.draco tend to grow less homogeneously. There are a few D.cinnabarii growing here in the Canaries. The ones in the Botanical Gardens in Gran Canaria already have trunks, but I think they have not branched yet.

Carlo

[SubTropicRay]

That is amazing. Thanks for posting.

[Eric in Orlando]

Wow, amazing trees. I have a couple small ones but they are SSLLLOOWWWWWWW growing, much slower than D. draco.

[Kris]

Dear Ron  

thanks a million times for such a feast.i love the variety in your

still and the boboabs in your avatar !  

thanks once again...

Love,

Kris  

[Carlo Morici]

Did anybody tried Dracaena tamaranae? It is a new species described some 10 years ago, endemic to some cliffs on the island of Gran Canaria. Much more succulent than Dracaena draco, it is reminiscent of D.ombet or D.serrulata.

Carlo

[Fouquieria]

  Quote

Did anybody tried Dracaena tamaranae?

Carlo, send me some seed and I'll try it...and some D. ombet too, if you have any laying around!  Also, the Moroccan version of D. draco var. ajgal would be nice to have too!

I've got two D. dracos that haven't divided yet.  They are 6-7 feet tall.  I've noticed that as they have gotten larger, they seem to start growing faster.

I've got a little D. cinnabari and a little D. serrulata.  Both are a foot tall and in pots.  The serrulata seems a wee bit faster growing than the cinnabari.

-Ron-

[MattyB]

Holy flicker batman!  That's awesome!  Thanks for sharing Ron.

[LJG]

Great picture!

I still find it hard to tell the difference between Draco and Cinnabari in some cases. It is amazing two plants can look so close and be found on two separate small islands 1000s of miles apart. I know here in San Diego there are two forms of Draco. Either that or it is mislabeled Dracaena cinnabari.

Dracaena tamaranae? Did not know you can get it or if you could it came from a serious hook up as it is so rare and hard to get out.

Dracaena serrulata can be found, but the one I really wish to get is D. ombet. The pictures I have seen of mature plants are unbelievable. I have been trying for some time to track one down.

Carlo, do you have any lines on ombet or tamaranae?

[Carlo Morici]

Sorry, I was just asking. At present I have no access to seeds or plants of Dracaena other than D.draco. I have never grown any personally.

Seed collection of D.tamaranae was achieved just one or two times by experts in rock climbing. There are only a few wild trees, in vertical cliffs, and they do not fruit every year. Seeds were planted in the Jardín Botánico Viera y Clavijo in Gran Canaria. They start their life with succulent stiff leaves, quite different from the floppier D.draco. The garden kept dozens for them and distributed seedlings to various schools/gardens in the Gran Canaria and to institutions/privates in other islands and abroad. Some surely flew to the UK and US, so ... maybe... at the Huntington, Kew?!

That bot.garden in Gran Canaria also keeps a comprehensive collection of dragon-like Dracaena spp., which now are about 20-25 years old.

I will ask one or two tamaranae fror the Palmetum - I don't think they have enough to give away many more.

Some friends here grow plants of various Dracaena spp. from the seeds they brought from their trips to Africa and Middle East.  Sadly again, those are "ones or twos" per kind, so I don't think they have any extra-plants for trading.

Carlo

[Carlo Morici]

Here is a line drawing of Dracaena tamaranae, picked from this article in Spanish with "the whole story":

http://www.rinconesdelatlantico.com/articul....ar=2004

And here is a picture of one of the juveniles in Gran Canaria, picked from this french website that has nice pictures of many exotic gardens in the Canaries:

http://www.mytho-fleurs.com/Ile_de_Tenerife.htm

[Fouquieria]

Carlo, my comment was stricktly "toungue-in-cheek."

I realize how absolutely rare these plants are.

Thank you for posting the pic, however...it's the best I've seen of one of these plants.  It does look somewhat like my little D. serrulata.

-Ron-

[STEVE IN SO CAL]

I think I saw some of these growing out in Area 51, New Mexico... :cool:

[Peter]

Here's Dracaena cinnabari at the UCLA Botanic Gardens in LA:

And here are a couple of Dracaena's I got last week as a gift: someone ID'd them as D. arborea.  They are about 6-7' tall-how large will they get in Socal?

[DoomsDave]

Whoa!

They look like giant mushrooms . . . .

dave

[LJG]

(Fouquieria @ May 26 2007,03:59)

QUOTE

Carlo, my comment was stricktly "toungue-in-cheek."

I realize how absolutely rare these plants are.

Carlo, I wasn't.

You just NEVER know who has access to what.....

Dracaena tamaranae looks like it will be more ornamental as an adult then Draco. What do you think?

[Charles Wychgel]

Here is a Dracaena serrulata growing in the garden of John Lavranos a neighbour of mine here in the Algarve.

The plant is ± 30 years old and shows as Carlo mentioned the not so floppy leaves(as compared to Dr.draco) no fruit yet unfortunately; but he kindly gave me a two year seedling only 10 cm tall.

[Charles Wychgel]

and the seedling........

These are even slower than the slowest of palms, I will never see this one flower as time is not on my side.

I wonder if these plants transplant well when they have some size... do you have any info on this Carlo?

[Carlo Morici]

Well, in the past years I had access to some of the mentioned species. I said no, because... because.... why should I grow exotic slow dragons if the native one is possibly the best grower of all? But I like to see them planted in the botanical gardens.

Dracaena draco have been planted by 10.000s during the past decades in gardens, parks and mountains of the Canary Islands. There is just a young drago everywhere.

it thrives at best in even mild temperatures, often comprised between 10-20 C at night and 20-26 C during the days.

- it does not stand hot and wet tropical weather (fungi).

This can be solved by using fungicides during the first years and planting the trees in raised beds of sand or gravel, with no shade and free air movement. Also, reduce watering in the hottest months.

- it does not stand frost.

It does stand light frosts, BUT, if the apex is lost, the recovered plants present abnormal growth, and never become beautiful trees.

About transplant: I have no experience with exotic species, the basic laws for D.draco are: to do it in dry weather, never water after transplanting for weeks and defoliate about 1/3 of the crown. Here is often a 100% success and fungicide is only used for larger expensive trees or during wet weather (wrong season!).

Trees transplanted from the wild, barely adapted to the "richer" environment of gardens. This is not done anymore, but trees tranplanted decades ago showed slow recovery and uneven, ugly, subsequent growth.

Give strong support to the transplanted trees to avoid toppling. For branched trees we build a heavy framework of wooden beams and keep it for about 2 years, until the roots have grown enough.

Maybe D.cinnabari from the mythical island of Socotra (the first picture that started all this thread), would be better suited to a hot tropical climate such as Kris' india.

Charles I am glad to know that you and John Lavranos are neighbours! What a neighbour!

Carlo,

From the land of palms and dragons.

[Kris]

Dear Carlos  

Thanks a lot for those vital information on plants suited for

indian kind of climate.

Thanks & Love,

Kris  

[Charles Wychgel]

(Carlo Morici @ May 26 2007,22:10)

QUOTE

About transplant: I have no experience with exotic species, the basic laws for D.draco are: to do it in dry weather, never water after transplanting for weeks and defoliate about 1/3 of the crown. Here is often a 100% success and fungicide is only used for larger expensive trees or during wet weather (wrong season!).

Trees transplanted from the wild, barely adapted to the "richer" environment of gardens. This is not done anymore, but trees tranplanted decades ago showed slow recovery and uneven, ugly, subsequent growth.

Give strong support to the transplanted trees to avoid toppling. For branched trees we build a heavy framework of wooden beams and keep it for about 2 years, until the roots have grown enough.

Grazie,obrigado, bedankt, Carlo

I fell in love with John's D.serrulata the moment I saw it and was contemplating to buy it from him; will think about it now.

[Brian Bruning]

Put me on the list for any arborescent Dracaenas and I'll pay for them. I just bought 5 hectares just outside of Palm Springs CA and I'm looking for rare and unusually plants adapted to 5% humidity, a little winter frost (-2C) some years, winters are pleasant 15 night, 20-25C days, summer is hot, 35-40C during the day and 25-30 at night. I'm also interested in palms, geophytes (bulbs), orchids and Heliconias .

[drzoidberg1]

Here is a nice D. draco I picked up a few days ago from my buddy. It was too big for his space....SCORE!!

[avanza]

  On 5/12/2011 at 10:56 PM, drzoidberg1 said:

Here is a nice D. draco I picked up a few days ago from my buddy. It was too big for his space....SCORE!!

dracena draco 001 800x600.jpg

dracena draco 002 800x600.jpg

dracena draco 003 800x600.jpg

I love this.

Thank you very much.

[avanza]

Any update?