The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Dracaena hyacinthoides
Iguanatail is a rhizomatous, shrub-like plant from eastern Africa that grows up to about 0.9 m (3 ft) tall with stiff, upright, banded leaves. It does best in part shade and is grown mainly as a warm-climate ornamental or tough houseplant.
Dracaena hyacinthoides (many authorities continue to use its synonym Sansevieria hyacinthoides), called the African bowstring hemp, Somali hemp, Somali good luck plant, piles root, iguanatail, and mother-in-law's-tongue (a name it shares with Dracaena trifasciata), is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae. It is native to eastern Africa, from Kenya to South Africa, and it has been introduced to other locales, particularly Florida, the Caribbean, and Central America. An erect shrub reaching 0.9 m (3 ft), it is found in the seasonally dry tropics.
Dracaena hyacinthoides is used as an ornamental in warm areas and as a houseplant, performing best in semi-shade. As some of its common names suggest, it is a minor fiber crop, and in its home range it is used as a treatment for hemorrhoids.
Suji · Tree Dracaena · Lance Dracaena · Dracaena bacularis · Lucky Bamboo · Socotra dragontree · Dracaena concinna · Canary Island Dragon Tree · Fragrant dracaena · Zebra Striped Dragon Tree · Dracaena pethera · Song Of India
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dracaena hyacinthoides by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
