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Dracaena serrulata
Dracaena serrulata, also called the Arabian or Yemen dragon tree, is a distinctive tree reaching around 5m tall with a single trunk. It is found in the dry escarpment mountains of southwestern Arabia in Oman, South Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Dracaena serrulata is restricted largely to the highest, dry plateaus at the back of monsoon mountains, an area which monsoon rains do not reach. Dracaena serrulata grows commonly in association with such species as Vachellia etbaica and Grewia erythraea.
The stiff leaves of the Dracaena serrulata were an important source of fibre and rope. The large, stiff and spike-tipped leaves were cut or pulled from the trunk, and beaten with heavy clubs to loosen and crack open the rigid outer casing of the leaf. Then the leaves were taken to water and left to soak in it for some weeks. Once thoroughly softened, the leaves were removed from the water and piled up in heaps on a hard, flat surface, and then beaten and thrashed with switches to loosen the fibre into separate strands. Once the separate fibres had been unravelled, they were twisted and rubbed on the thigh or between the fingers to produce threads, which could then be double or trebled, rolled and twisted again, or plaited according to the thickness of rope desired. These threads were traditionally said to make the strongest of all the cordage produced in Oman.
Dracaena aethiopica · Dracaena afromontana · Dracaena ajgal · Large-leaved dragon tree · Dracaena americana · Suji · Tree Dracaena · Lance Dracaena · Dracaena aubrytiana · Golden Dracaena · Dracaena bacularis · Dracaena ballyi
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dracaena serrulata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
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.
