The dragon tree, perhaps one of the most memorable plant names, gets that name from an ancient Greek myth. You might have heard of the great hero, Heracles, or by his Latin name, Hercules. Like so many of the characters in Greek mythology, Heracles was a child of Zeus. According to the legend, this half-human, half-god had to do a series of very difficult tasks in order to atone his sins (which he was tricked into doing by Zeus’ wife, Hera), after which he was elevated to “full god status”. As part of his eleventh task, he slay a serpentine, hundred-headed dragon named Ladon. Ladon was the guard of a sacred tree with golden apples, and Heracles needed to harvest its apples for the task. Heracles battled the guardian dragon, and eventually killed it. Wherever Ladon’s blood fell to the ground, little dragon trees emerged, still leaking Ladon’s blood from their bark.

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While this story is obviously myth, one aspect is rooted in reality. The next time you can, search for “dragon trees bleeding” in a web browser and you can watch actual dragon trees leak blood out of cracks in their bark. Of course, it is not real blood. Rather, the chemical composition of dragon blood tree sap makes it turn dark red on contact with air. Unlike many trees, occasionally this sap will even leak out of dragon trees that are healthy.

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There are a number of species of dragon trees that leak “blood”. The tree you see before you is among the most endangered of these species. The Canary Island dragon tree is native to the islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, about 150 miles off the coast of North Africa. It’s been introduced to Morocco and Madeira, but only a few hundred trees survive in their natural home. There, they are regularly lost to fires, and over time humans have regularly cut them down to clear land for farming. Beyond these threats to their habitat, introduced animals like rats, goats, and rabbits eat their fruit and seedlings; they did not have these same herbivores on the islands historically, so this is another threat that is directly linked to human activity. However, these aren’t the only factors harming the Canary Island dragon tree.

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            It turns out that their unique ability to bleed also creates problems for their survival. The threat is not from blood loss, but because that dragon’s blood used to be worth a lot of money. Historically, the blood of the Canary Island dragon tree has been a valuable commodity. Dragon’s blood from other species of dragon tree that were found more widely through the world was used for medicine and as a red dye for thousands of years. When Canary Island Dragon’s blood hit the European markets around six hundred years ago, that spelled disaster. Consider a merchant during the Italian Renaissance; if you wanted to harvest a shipment of Dragon’s blood from the Canary Islands, you would not be likely to wait for it to leak out of naturally occurring cracks. Instead, people interested in harvesting the blood would cut the tree to ribbons and harvest everything you can in the process. This overharvesting was devastating, and the population of Canary Island dragon trees has never fully recovered from this exploitation.

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            At this time, however, the demand for dragon’s blood has diminished, and the tree is widely available for cultivation outside of the Canary Islands. Its native island population is vulnerable, but the species isn’t likely to go fully extinct because arboreta, like the one you are visiting, are working to preserve it. That’s good, because the Canary Island dragon tree is valuable for more than just its blood. It is recognized as an important cultural symbol by the people of the island of Tenerife, and even features on the flag of the city of Icod de los Vinos. A huge 300-year-old dragon tree named “El Drago Milenario” still symbolizes the mythical dragon Ladon in the eyes of the locals. However, unlike its slain legendary ancestor, El Drago continues to guard its home to this day.