Dracaena americana

The genus Dracaena is almost entirely an Old World group — over two hundred species native to Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, and Southeast Asia. Yet two species broke this rule and established themselves in the Americas, in one of the most remarkable disjunctions in plant geography. The first to be discovered was Dracaena americana, a graceful shrub or small tree of the tropical forests of Central America and southern Mexico, described in 1905 by John Donnell Smith from Honduran material. The second was Dracaena cubensis, a slender serpentine specialist confined to eastern Cuba, described in 1942.

Of the two New World species, Dracaena americana is by far the more widespread, the more vigorous, and the more amenable to cultivation — yet it remains astonishingly obscure. It is virtually absent from European gardens, almost never discussed in the amateur horticultural literature, and not listed by a single European or North American nursery as of 2026. A specimen has been growing in the open ground at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami since 1953, thriving with minimal attention for over seventy years — proof that the species is perfectly cultivable in subtropical climates, if only people knew about it.

This article covers the taxonomy, ecology, ethnobotany, cultivation, and phylogenetic significance of Dracaena americana — the larger, more widely distributed, and more accessible of the two New World Dracaena species.

Taxonomy

The first collection of the species now known as Dracaena americana was made by Carl Thieme (?–1889) in May 1888, in Honduras. Little is known of Thieme except that he collected specimens for John Donnell Smith (1829–1928), a prolific botanical explorer of Central America. Donnell Smith distributed the material to herbaria under the manuscript name “Cordyline oligosperma Donn. Sm. ined.,” a name he never published and which has no botanical standing.

The species was formally described and illustrated by Donnell Smith in 1905:

Basionym: Dracaena americana Donn. Sm. in Sargent, Trees & Shrubs 1: 207, pl. 98 (1905).

Type: Honduras, Department of Santa Bárbara, San Pedro Sula, at an altitude of 300 m, May 1888, C. Thieme 5602. Lectotype (designated by Zona et al. 2014): MO. Isolectotypes: A, GH, K, NY, US.

Donnell Smith (1905) placed Dracaena americana alongside Dracaena draco in Baker’s section Draconis, noting that both species share minute flowers. This taxonomic intuition has not been confirmed by molecular data: modern phylogenetic analysis (Lu & Morden 2014) shows that Dracaena americana is not closely related to Dracaena draco at all. The resemblance in flower size is convergent.

A third New World Dracaena was described by Cyrus L. Lundell in 1935 as Dracaena petenensis, based on a sterile collection from Guatemala. It was subsequently transferred to Beaucarnea and is now regarded as a synonym of Beaucarnea pliabilis (Baker) Rose — not a Dracaena at all.

Common names: Isote, Izote (Honduras); Candlewood, Candalwood, Cerbatana, Fiddlewood, Isote del monte, Tuét, Tut (Belize); Caña de Arco, Cerbatana, Cukil, Halal, Ilcaax, Izote de Montaña (Guatemala); Saram, Campanilla (Mexico); Iik’ k’aax (Yucatán peninsula); Yoch ik mején (Chiapas, Mexico). The abundance of common names in Mayan languages reflects the long and intimate relationship between this species and the indigenous peoples of its range.

Family: Asparagaceae, subfamily Nolinoideae (APG IV)

Etymology

The epithet americana simply indicates that the species is native to the Americas — a notable distinction in a genus otherwise confined to the Old World. At the time of its description in 1905, it was the only known New World Dracaena.

Description

Dracaena americana is a shrub or small tree, usually with multiple stems, growing up to 10–12 m tall, with a trunk diameter of up to 30 cm. In well-preserved forest stands, exceptional individuals can reach 18 m. The bark is greyish-brown and exfoliating; young branches bear the oblique scars of fallen leaves.

Leaves: linear, 20–35 cm long and 1.0–2.5 cm wide at the base, soft and flexible, bright green. Unlike many Dracaena species that bear their leaves in tufts at the apex of their stems, Dracaena americana bears its leaves along the entire length of its stems — a distinctive habit that gives the plant a more uniformly leafy appearance than its congeners. This character sets it apart from both Dracaena cubensis (which bears leaves only on the distal quarter of each stem) and the typical Canary Islands dragon tree (which bears dense terminal rosettes).

Inflorescence: paniculate, terminal, branched to two orders, approximately 20–30 cm long.

Flowers: borne on short pedicels in clusters of 2–5. Tepals creamy white, approximately 7 mm long.

Fruit: berries up to 20 mm in diameter, sometimes lobed, containing 1–3 subglobose seeds 10–12 mm in diameter. Fruit colour ranges from deep yellow to red at maturity. The fruits have a sweet taste and are attractive to birds (including cracids and tinamous) and howler monkeys (Alouatta pigra), which are likely important agents of seed dispersal (Lancaster 1964; Rivas Romero et al., undated; Trolliet 2010).

Dragon’s blood resin: Dracaena americana does not produce the red resin known as dragon’s blood. This is a characteristic of the Old World arborescent dragon trees (Dracaena draco, Dracaena cinnabari) and is not shared by either of the New World species.

General habit: in forest understory conditions, plants tend to develop prostrate branches and occur as scattered individuals rather than in cohorts. On dry or open sunny sites, individuals are much smaller. The species is shade-tolerant but not shade-obligate — young plants are commonly found in forest gaps, forest edges, and disturbed areas. Under optimal growing conditions, individuals become reproductive approximately seven years after seed germination.

Habitat and Distribution

Dracaena americana has a remarkably wide distribution for a species in a predominantly Old World genus. It occurs from southern Mexico (Tabasco, Veracruz, Quintana Roo, Oaxaca, Chiapas) through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Panama. It has not been recorded from El Salvador or Nicaragua, though this absence may reflect insufficient collecting rather than genuine absence (Robbins 2001).

Most remarkably, the species reappears on the Pacific slope of the Andes in Colombia (Reserva Natural La Planada, Nariño), far south of the main Central American range — a disjunction that remains unexplained. Its presence in Colombia was established in 1990 by a specimen collected by Thomas Croat (Croat 2200 at MO).

The elevational range is broad: from sea level to over 1,900 m, though the species is most commonly collected in the 200–700 m range.

Climate

Dracaena americana thrives in areas with a hot-humid or sub-humid climate, an average temperature of 26–28 °C, and rainfall greater than 1,500 mm per year. Like Dracaena cubensis, this is a fully tropical, frost-free species — but it inhabits a different ecological niche: wet forests on limestone karst rather than serpentine scrub.

Soils and vegetation

The species grows mostly on limestone karst on gentle slopes, where shallow, humus-rich rendzina soils develop — a substrate radically different from the serpentine soils inhabited by Dracaena cubensis. The main type of vegetation is wet forest with a canopy of up to 25 m, in which Dracaena americana occupies the medium to low layer.

Characteristic co-occurring species include Aspidosperma megalocarpon, Bactris mexicana, Bernoullia flammea, Brosimum alicastrum, Bursera simaruba, Cameraria latifolia, Cascabela gaumeri, Chamaedorea oblongata, Cupania dentata, Dialium guianense, Guatteria anomala, Haematoxylon campechianum, Lysiloma latisiliqum, Manilkara sapota, Metopium browneii, Pimenta dioica, Sabal mauritiiformis, and Swietenia macrophylla. In Belize, the species occurs with Pinus caribaea, Beaucarnea pliabilis, and Gaussia maya in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve.

This is a species of the Maya forest — the great tropical lowland forest that stretches from southern Mexico through the Petén of Guatemala to Belize and Honduras, one of the largest remaining blocks of tropical forest in Mesoamerica.

Conservation

The conservation status of Dracaena americana has not been formally assessed by the IUCN. However, given its wide distribution and the occurrence of large populations across its range, the species does not appear to meet any of the three IUCN “threatened” categories (Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable).

It occurs in numerous protected areas across its range, including in Belize (Chiquibul National Park, Bladen Natural Preserve, Maya Mountain Forest Reserve, Columbia River Forest Reserve, Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve, Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area), Costa Rica (Parque Nacional Carara, Parque Nacional Tapantí Macizo de La Muerte), Guatemala (Parque Nacional Mirador Río Azul, Parque Nacional Sierra del Lacandón, Reserva de la Biosfera Tikal, Parque Nacional Laguna Lachuá, Reserva de la Biosfera Maya), Honduras (Parque Nacional Pico Bonito, Reserva de la Biosfera Tawahka Asangni), and Mexico (Reserva de la Biosfera Calakmul, Reserva de la Biosfera Montes Azules, Reserva de la Biosfera Selva El Ocote, Monumento Natural Yaxchilán).

Ethnobotany

In contrast to the well-documented pharmacological uses of Dracaena draco and Dracaena cinnabari, Dracaena americana is not widely used in traditional medicine. A single herbarium specimen annotation references its use by the Lacandón Maya of Chiapas, Mexico, but details are lacking. The species does not produce dragon’s blood resin.

However, Dracaena americana has other documented ethnobotanical uses:

Ornamental plant: cultivated in home gardens across its range for its attractive foliage and form.

Fibre plant: the leaves are used as a source of natural fibre (Rico-Gray et al. 1991; Balick et al. 2000).

Forage: used as livestock feed in some regions (Levy Tacher et al. 2002).

Food: Contreras Cortés (2011) reported that the Lacandón Maya of Chiapas use the species for food, though the specific part consumed and method of preparation were not detailed.

The abundance of common names in Mayan languages — Cukil, Halal, Ilcaax, Iik’ k’aax, Tut, Tuét, Saram, Yoch ik mején — attests to a long and intimate familiarity between the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and this plant. Dracaena americana is woven into the fabric of the Maya forest and the cultures that have inhabited it for millennia.

Phylogenetic Position and Biogeography

Dracaena americana shares with Dracaena cubensis a phylogenetic position of extraordinary significance. Lu & Morden (2014) demonstrated that the two New World species together form a well-supported clade that is sister to all remaining Dracaena sensu lato — including the entire Sansevieria clade, all the African and Arabian dragon trees, and the tropical forest species of Africa and Southeast Asia. Only the Hawaiian genus Chrysodraco (formerly Pleomele in part) is more basally placed.

This means that the Dracaena americana–Dracaena cubensis lineage diverged before the diversification of all the Old World species. The two New World species are not recent arrivals — they are the oldest surviving branch of the Dracaena tree.

The biogeographic scenario proposed by Lu & Morden (2014) suggests that the ancestors of Dracaena arose in southern or southeastern Asia, dispersed to Hawaii, then to the Americas, and subsequently to Africa. If correct, the common ancestor of the African, Arabian, and Macaronesian Dracaena species was an American plant. Marie-Victorin intuited this connection in 1942 when he described Dracaena cubensis, though he attributed it to continental drift (Wegener’s then-controversial theory) rather than to long-distance dispersal.

The two New World species occupy radically different ecological niches — limestone karst forests (Dracaena americana) versus serpentine scrub (Dracaena cubensis) — and differ substantially in morphology, distribution, and resilience. How and when the ancestral New World Dracaena split into these two divergent lineages remains unknown. The phylogeography of this pair is a major unanswered question in the biogeography of tropical American plants.

Cultivation

Growing conditions

Dracaena americana is far more amenable to cultivation than Dracaena cubensis, but it remains extremely rare in botanical gardens and essentially unknown in the nursery trade outside of its native range.

Successful cultivation records:

At the Jardín Botánico Regional of Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán (CICY) in Mérida, Mexico, the species has been successfully grown from material collected in southern Quintana Roo. Plants have produced both flowers and fruits. For several years, the CICY botanic garden has supplied seeds to a local nursery, which has successfully raised and distributed plants to the public — apparently the only commercial source anywhere.

At Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami, Florida (USDA zone 10b), a large specimen has been growing well in open ground since 1953, from material collected in Costa Rica. This is remarkable: over seventy years of successful outdoor cultivation in southern Florida, with no special care, suggests that Dracaena americana is a resilient and easy plant in the right climate.

The species is also cultivated at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida. A voucher specimen at MO (Humbles 6635) documents a cultivated individual growing in Ecuador, on the campus of the Universidad Central in Quito.

Beyond these records, a multi-site search in European and North American botanical gardens returned no results (Zona et al. 2014). The species is unaccountably rare in cultivation.

Light: in its native habitat, Dracaena americana grows in the understory of wet forests with canopies of up to 25 m. It is shade-tolerant and can thrive in partial shade to light shade. Full sun is tolerated, especially in humid climates, but prolonged direct sun in hot, dry conditions may cause leaf scorch. This shade tolerance is a significant advantage for garden use: the species would make an excellent understory planting beneath taller tropical trees.

Soil: in the wild, the species grows on limestone karst with humus-rich rendzina soils. In cultivation, a well-drained but humus-rich substrate is appropriate — the opposite of the mineral, nutrient-poor substrate required by Dracaena cubensis. The species should tolerate alkaline soils well, given its natural limestone affinity.

Water: Dracaena americana grows in areas with rainfall exceeding 1,500 mm per year. It is not a drought-tolerant species in the way that Dracaena draco is. Regular watering during the growing season is recommended. However, like all Dracaena species, it requires good drainage and should not sit in waterlogged soil.

Temperature: this is a tropical species adapted to average temperatures of 26–28 °C year-round, with no natural frost exposure. It should be assumed to be frost-tender. The successful long-term cultivation at Fairchild (Miami, zone 10b — annual minimum approximately +2 to +4 °C) and at CICY (Mérida, zone 10a — occasional brief dips to near 0 °C) provides a rough indication of tolerance, but no controlled cold-hardiness data exist. A conservative estimate would be USDA zone 10a–10b minimum.

In Mediterranean climates (such as the French Riviera or coastal southern California), Dracaena americana would likely require protection from winter cold and from dry, sunny conditions that are foreign to its native forest understory habitat. It would be better suited to a sheltered, partially shaded position with supplementary irrigation, or to greenhouse culture.

Propagation

From seed: the primary method. Seeds are slow and difficult to germinate (Zona et al. 2014). Under optimal conditions at the CICY botanic garden, individuals become reproductive approximately seven years after seed germination — fast by cycad standards, but slow compared to most tropical shrubs.

From stem cuttings: Dracaena species are generally easy to propagate from stem cuttings, and there is no reason to expect Dracaena americana to be an exception, though specific reports are lacking.

Availability: seeds and plants of Dracaena americana are not commercially available from any known European or North American source as of 2026. The only documented commercial supply is the local nursery in Yucatán associated with the CICY botanic garden. For collectors and botanical gardens, direct contact with CICY (Mérida, Mexico) or Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Miami, Florida) may be the most productive route to obtaining material.

Pests and diseases

No specific pest or disease problems have been reported for Dracaena americana in cultivation. Given the species’ membership in the genus Dracaena, the usual suspects should be watched for: mealybugs and scale insects on indoor-grown specimens, and root rot from overwatering or poor drainage.

Comparison with Dracaena cubensis

The two New World Dracaena species are sister taxa but occupy radically different ecological niches:

Size: Dracaena americana reaches 10–12 m (exceptionally 18 m). Dracaena cubensis reaches only 4 m.

Stems: Dracaena americana has thick trunks (up to 30 cm diameter) with exfoliating bark. Dracaena cubensis has slender, cane-like stems (3.5 cm diameter).

Leaf arrangement: Dracaena americana bears leaves along the full length of its stems. Dracaena cubensis bears leaves only on the distal quarter.

Leaf texture: Dracaena americana has soft, flexible, bright green leaves. Dracaena cubensis has leathery, strongly recurved leaves.

Flowers: Dracaena americana has larger tepals (7 mm) in clusters of 2–5. Dracaena cubensis has smaller tepals (4 mm) in clusters of 2–3.

Fruit: Dracaena americana has large berries (up to 20 mm) with large seeds (10–12 mm). Dracaena cubensis has smaller berries (7–10 mm) with smaller seeds (4 mm).

Substrate: limestone karst (Dracaena americana) versus serpentine ultramafic (Dracaena cubensis).

Distribution: Mexico to Colombia (Dracaena americana) versus northeastern Cuba only (Dracaena cubensis).

Cultivation: successfully grown at Fairchild since 1953 (Dracaena americana). Only succeeded in Havana on transported serpentine soil (Dracaena cubensis).

Comparison with Dracaena draco

Donnell Smith (1905) placed Dracaena americana alongside Dracaena draco on the basis of shared minute flowers. The two species differ profoundly in ecology, morphology, and phylogenetic position:

Habit: Dracaena draco is an arborescent monocotyledon that develops a massive trunk and an umbrella-shaped crown through dichotomous branching after each flowering episode. Dracaena americana is a multi-stemmed shrub or small tree that does not develop the iconic dragon tree silhouette.

Resin: Dracaena draco produces the legendary crimson dragon’s blood resin. Dracaena americana does not.

Habitat: Dracaena draco is adapted to dry, semi-arid conditions (Macaronesia, Morocco). Dracaena americana inhabits wet tropical forests with over 1,500 mm annual rainfall.

Cold hardiness: Dracaena draco tolerates brief frosts to approximately −3 to −5 °C. Dracaena americana is a fully tropical species with no frost tolerance.

Phylogeny: Lu & Morden (2014) showed that Dracaena draco is not closely related to the New World species. Instead, it is paired with Dracaena aubryana of tropical Africa. The arborescent “dragon tree” growth form evolved independently in multiple lineages within Dracaena, and the superficial resemblance between Dracaena americana and Dracaena draco (noted by Donnell Smith) does not reflect close kinship.

Sites and Pages of Interest

Bibliography

Zona, S., Álvarez de Zayas, A., Orellana, R., Oviedo, R., Jestrow, B. & Francisco-Ortega, J. (2014). Dracaena L. (Asparagaceae) en el Nuevo Mundo: su historia y botánica. VIERAEA 42: 219–240.

Lu, P.-L. & Morden, C.W. (2014). Phylogenetic relationships among dracaenoid genera (Asparagaceae: Nolinoideae) inferred from chloroplast DNA loci. Systematic Botany 39: 90–104.

Donnell Smith, J. (1905). Dracaena americana. P. 207. In: C.S. Sargent (ed.), Trees and Shrubs, Vol. 1. Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company.

Marie-Victorin, Bro. (1942). Dracæna cubensis, une relique d’affinité Africaine dans la flore de Cuba. Contributions de l’Institut Botanique de l’Université de Montréal 43: 1–16.

Baker, J.G. (1875). Revision of the genera and species of Asparagaceae. Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany 14: 508–632.

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Rico-Gray, V., Chemás, A. & Mandujano, S. (1991). Uses of tropical deciduous forest species by the Yucatecan Maya. Agroforestry Systems 14: 149–161.

Balick, M.J., Nee, M.H. & Atha, D.E. (2000). Checklist of the vascular plants of Belize, with common names and uses. Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden 85: 1–217.

Levy Tacher, S.I., Aguirre Rivera, J.R., Martínez Romero, M.M. & Durán Fernández, A. (2002). Caracterización del uso tradicional de la flora espontánea en la comunidad Lacandona de Lacanha, Chiapas, México. Interciencia 27: 512–520.

Contreras Cortés, L.E.U. (2011). Percepción y manejo de los recursos naturales en la comunidad Lacandona de Nahá, Chiapas. Dissertation, Puebla, México: Colegio de Postgraduados.

Lancaster, D.A. (1964). Life history of the Boucard Tinamou in British Honduras. Part I: Distribution and general behavior. Condor 66: 165–181.

Trolliet, F. (2010). Ecology of the Belizean black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra): a comparison between two populations living in a riparian forest and on coastal limestone hills. M.Sc. thesis, Liège: Université de Liège.

Robbins, R.L. (2001). Agavaceae Endl. Pp. 41–47 in: Stevens, W.D., Ulloa Ulloa, C., Pool, A. & Montiel, O.M. (eds.), Flora de Nicaragua, Vol. 1. St. Louis: Missouri Botanical Garden.

Lundell, C.L. (1935). A new species of Dracaena from the Petén, Guatemala. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 25: 230.

Allen, P.H. (1977). The Rainforests of Golfo Dulce. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Escalante, S. (1993). Jardín Botánico Regional guía general. Colecciones taxonómicas. Orden Asparagales. Mérida: Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán.