Abstract
This article is a broad review focused on dragon trees—one of the most famous groups of trees in the world, well known from ancient times. These tertiary relicts are severely endangered in most of the area where they grow. The characteristic features of the dragon tree group are described and the species belonging to this group are listed. This review gathers together current knowledge regarding the taxonomy, evolution, anatomy and morphology, physiology, and ontogeny of arborescent dragon tree species. Attention is also paid to the composition, harvesting, medicinal, and ethnobotanical use of the resin (dragons’ blood). An evaluation of population structure, distribution, ecology, threats, and nature conservation forms the final part of the review. In the conclusions we recommend further avenues of research that will be needed to effectively protect all dragon tree species.
Highlights
Two species are found in Macaronesia and NW Africa: D. draco and D. tamaranae; the rest of the species are found in East Africa, Arabia and Soqotra (Figure 1)
There is no similar record in scientific literature for other species of dragon trees, we can assume, especially in East Asia, that similar methods could be used for dragons blood harvesting of D. cochinchinensis and D. cambodiana, where is broadly used in traditional ethnomedicine [11,68,107,129]
Dracaena species belonging to the dragon tree group can be divided into three groups that are based on the geography and broader environmental conditions: the Macaronesian group (D. draco and D. tamaranae), the northeast African/Arabian group
Summary
The genus Dracaena Vand. ex L. is placed in the family Asparagaceae subfamily Nolinoideae [33,34]. Kuntze conducted an analysis of the original name of this genus [36] He has pointed out that the first published name for the dragon tree from the Canary Islands was Draco Heist., due to its publication in 1748. In conclusion Kuntze has pointed out, that all species of Dracaena shall be transferred into the genus Draco Heist., which he did . DNA analysis showed that Dracaena clade includes genus Pleomele Salisbury. Species of Pleomele are intermixed into Dracaena clade so based on taxonomic view should be renamed as Dracaena because of the priority of the Dracaena genus name Vandelli ex Linnaeus (1767) in comparison with. Molecular studies point out that the species of Sansevieria create a clade within Dracaena [33]. As Dracaena draco was the type species for the genus name, we can for conclude that the genus name Dracaena is proper for the dragon trees, as enumerated in this paper
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