Dragon’s Blood and Other Botanicals

It’s hard to remember all the names of plants and trees that one encounters in foreign lands. But with a name like “Dragon’s Blood” tree [Dracaena Draco] who can forget? I saw this specimen near the Sydney Botanic Gardens – it’s not a native, originating from the Canary Islands. This particular one had toppled over and was fenced off. It’s over a 100 years old and apparently these trees can live up to 600 years in the wild. The bright red resin that it produces is used [amongst other things] as a varnish by violin makers. Here are more images, some taken with my cellphone because my regular camera was misbehaving.