Dragon tree (Dracaena draco)
Original title: Dragoeiro (Dracaena Draco)
The dragon tree (Dracaena draco), native to Madeira, the Canaries and Cape Verde, was once used for boat-building and for its resin (dragon's blood) but is now almost extinct in the wild on Madeira. The entry records notable specimens, most of them lost, and the few that still survive.
Description, uses and notable specimens
A tree peculiar to Madeira, the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, 6 to 15 metres tall. Its stems are at first simple, later branching at the top, but the branches always start from the same height; the leaves are terminal, elongated and linear; the flowers whitish; the berries globular and yellow.
This tree, now almost extinct on Madeira, disappeared long ago from Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’), where, according to Frutuoso, its trunks were used to make boats in which 6 or 7 men could fish.
In former times dragon’s blood was extracted from the dragon tree by means of incisions, but today nobody thinks of using the tree for that purpose, because of its extreme rarity.
There is no record that any dragon tree was ever found on Madeira with the dimensions of the famous dragon tree of Tenerife, destroyed by the storm of 23 January 1868. The largest Madeiran specimen on record stood in the locality (sítio) of Pontinha de Cima (‘upper little point’), in Machico, and was brought down by a storm on 16 February 1843. Its trunk, which someone had measured, was 5.40 m in circumference and 11.85 m long, which would have given the whole tree a total height of 15 to 16 metres, whereas the Tenerife dragon tree measured, according to Broussonet, a little over 15 metres in circumference at the base and 24.33 m in height.
Two centuries-old dragon trees that could still be seen about 10 years ago on a quinta (country estate) at Monte (‘hill’), which had belonged to the late Count of Calçada (‘paved way’), were uprooted on the orders of the present owner of that quinta. The same fate befell another specimen of the same species that stood at the entrance to the ‘Quinta da Palmeira’ (‘palm-tree estate’), on the Levada de Santa Luzia (‘St Lucy’s channel’). The Monte specimens were much admired by foreigners for their beauty and great size.
Several dragon trees are still found in the quintas of Funchal and its outskirts, but outside them we now know of only one specimen at Garajau, another at Caniço, another at Ribeira Brava and a group of trees in the locality of Neves.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 02Place
Places mentioned · 15
Abroad
- Canary Islands
Spain. Part of the dragon tree's native range.
The Canary Islands are the archipelago neighbouring Madeira, with disputed accounts of their discovery. Tradition holds that their Béthencourt king sold them to Prince Henry in exchange for lands in Madeira. The Elucidário notes many contacts between the two archipelagos, including scientific visits, the Orfeão Madeirense's tour in May 1922 and the massacre of forty Jesuits in their waters.
- Caniço
Santa Cruz. Site of a surviving dragon tree.
Caniço is a parish in the municipality of Santa Cruz, lying on the boundary between the captaincies of Funchal and Machico. Its early settlers included Gaspar Rego, Vasco Fernandes Rego and Álvaro de Ornelas, whose family founded morgados there; its alcaide and judge were appointed by the Funchal senate. The parish includes the Garajau statue, the Jesuits' Socorro residence and the Quinta do Barão da Conceição.
- Cape Verde
Part of the dragon tree's native range.
Cape Verde is an archipelago and Portuguese colony that served as a place of exile and deportation for Madeirans, including liberals in the 1820s, protesters against the dairy decrees and the 1936 rioters. Lowe visited it in 1864 and 1866. It shares one flowering-plant species with Madeira.
- Funchal
Several dragon trees still survive in the quintas of Funchal and its outskirts.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Garajau
Santa Cruz. Site of one of the few surviving dragon trees outside the quintas.
Garajau is a headland closing Funchal bay to the east, 2.9 miles from Funchal, named after the terns found there by the discoverers. It is topped by a basalt dyke, bears a chapel of Nossa Senhora das Neves and the 1927 Sacred Heart statue, and had a telegraph from 1839 to 1847. It is noted for volcanic bombs, a surviving dragon tree, the only wild norça, Senecio incrassatus and deep-water shells, and is recommended as a viewpoint.
- Levada de Santa Luzia
Funchal. Levada beside which the Quinta da Palmeira stands.
The Levada de Santa Luzia is the oldest and most important private levada on Madeira, rising in the basin of the Santa Luzia stream and protected by a royal charter of 1515. In the 16th century it irrigated canefields; it crosses much of Santa Luzia parish, marking its northern limit, and is flanked by a road with views and quintas. Its commission disputed the Tornos springs with the Câmara, and a reservoir was built there in 1934.
- Machico
Location of the largest recorded Madeiran dragon tree.
The parish of Machico was the landing place of the discoverers Zargo and Tristão Vaz and the seat of the captaincy of Machico; the parish was founded c. 1450. The Elucidário covers its clergy and stipends, chapels, historical events, mineral springs, localities, population and notable natives.
- Monte
Funchal. Parish of the quinta where two admired dragon trees stood until they were uprooted.
Parish of Nossa Senhora do Monte above Funchal, at about 600 m, where leafing occurs later than in Funchal. It contains the localities of Jardim Botânico, Igreja and Marmeleiros and the Quinta de Sant'Ana. The Elucidário notes its many plants, such as acacias and Sonchus fruticosus.
- Neves
Funchal. Locality where a group of dragon trees survives.
Locality named after the chapel of Nossa Senhora das Neves, where a group of dragon trees survives.
- Pontinha de Cima
Machico. Site of the largest recorded Madeiran dragon tree, felled by a storm in 1843.
Site of the largest recorded Madeiran dragon tree, felled by a storm in 1843.
- Porto Santo
The tree disappeared from Porto Santo long ago; its trunks were once used there to make fishing boats.
An island of the archipelago, settled alongside Madeira and forming one of the three captaincies. It has always constituted a single parish, dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Piedade, whose church was repeatedly sacked. The Elucidário records the Moorish pirate raid of 1617, its own Misericórdia and a rainwater channel built on this drought-prone island.
- Quinta da Palmeira
Funchal. A dragon tree at the entrance to this quinta was uprooted.
Fine estate near Funchal, on the Levada de Santa Luzia road, owned by the industrialist Henrique Hinton and noted for its vegetation. In 1940 its garden preserved the window from the house where Christopher Columbus is said to have lived. It also served as an episcopal residence with a recently built chapel, and its owner gave visiting aviators a lunch there; a dragon tree at its entrance was uprooted.
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People
People mentioned · 03-
Naturalist cited for the measurements of the famous dragon tree of Tenerife.
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Late former owner of a quinta at Monte where two admired centuries-old dragon trees stood until they were uprooted by a later owner.
- Gaspar Frutuoso1522–1591
Chronicler who reported that boats able to carry six or seven fishermen were made from dragon-tree trunks on Porto Santo.