Talk:Dracaena draco

Dragon's blood

References to "dragon's blood" in relation to Dracaena draco need to be sourced carefully, which they are not in this article. It's not clear that there was any significant trade with the Canary Islands until the middle ages. Traditional "dragon's blood" was obtained from Dracaena cinnabari which is located on much better established trade routes. Peter coxhead (talk) 18:06, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

yes--TinyBillybobjo (talk) 16:04, 26 September 2016 (UTC)

Seed germination

I'm not too sure if this makes sense so I thought that rather than stick this in the article I would post it here and see what other editors think.

At this photography website I found a comment concerning the germination of Dracaena seeds, specifically, the photographer claims that, "Before the Spaniards arrived on the Canary Islands, some five hundred years ago, Dragon Tree fruits were the main food of an endemic, Dodo-like, flightless bird which is now extinct. Related to the pigeon, it was about the size of a turkey. Because of the extinction of the species, naturally occurring Dragon Trees are becoming very rare. The processing of Dragon Tree seeds through the digestive tract of this bird helped stimulate germination - without this aid, seed must be manually processed in order to sprout."

Looking for evidence of this extinct bird, I found this research paper claiming that radio carbon dating of fossil remains dates extinction of the Canary Islands Dune Shearwater (Puffinus holeae) to, "close to the time that the first human settlement occurred on the islands."

I wasn't able to read the whole paper so I don't know whether this bird eats Dracaena fruits or whether being eaten by that bird aided germination but I thought it interesting enough to deserve a closer look by someone who has a clue. Cheers Cottonshirtτ 15:09, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

Well, a puffin isn't related to a pigeon, so these two stories can't be connected if the first is correct. The story about a dodo-like bird appears in a number of places, including ARKive, which has "It is said that its seeds used to germinate as a result of being eaten by a flightless bird and passing through the bird's gut, but following the extinction of this bird, the seeds can no longer germinate without human manipulation. However, this is a hypothesis only, and cannot be proved." I can't find any more reliable source than this. The sources that repeat this story also repeat that the dragon's blood of antiquity was obtained from Dracaena draco, but this is not correct. Only in the 15th century was this species used, as is explained here. Peter coxhead (talk) 19:14, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

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Dragon Trees on the Azores?

This species grows on several islands of the Azores. Several authorities on the islands (eg: Botanical Garden of Faial) claim that the tree is native, not introduced. There is a specimen on Pico at Madalena growing on the grounds of its wine museum, a former convent, which is claimed to be 800-900 years of age. It is part of a grove of such trees. Although the trees may be found throughout the Azores, the trees of Pico are the only specimens sure to be spontaneously occurring, meaning that while it is entirely possible most of the trees on Sao Jorge, Graciosa, Terceira and elsewhere may have been planted by humans, the trees on Pico pre-date human presence in the islands. Coastal Pico, on the "lajes" areas, is a plain of lava blocks with very little soil, therefore more arid than its rainfall would suggest, etc etc. Can someone please investigate this further and either comment or amend the main article? 76.67.124.246 (talk) 04:42, 6 November 2017 (UTC)

The issue is whether any reliable secondary sources say that it's native to the Azores. Sources I've seen don't say so; e.g. the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families here has lower-case "azo" – lower-case means "introduced". Only if there's a reliable published source can we add this information. Peter coxhead (talk) 08:23, 6 November 2017 (UTC)