Species library › Dracaena › Dracaena marginata
Other Well documented

Dracaena marginata

Madagascar dragon tree

A slender, woody, cane-forming dragon tree from Madagascar. Its narrow, red-edged leaves grow in tufts at the tips of the stems. Some botanists treat it as Dracaena reflexa var. angustifolia. It is one of the most tolerant houseplants: it wants bright filtered light, steady warmth, a mix that dries between waterings, and water low in fluoride.

Dracaena marginata
Photo: Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day Warm-growingTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Dry airBand in Plantistry
Light Bright, filtered lightDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
No rest periodGrows in the ground

Where it grows wild

In the wild it is a shrub or small tree of Madagascar's forests and forest edges, reaching several metres, with branched, bare stems topped by rosettes of leaves. Published species-level habitat detail is thin: the trade plant is known almost entirely from cultivation. Its relatives in the reflexa group grow in the understorey and along the margins of humid and semi-dry forest, where they get broken, filtered light.

No reliable wild elevation data were found. None of the GBIF records used here came from Madagascar or carried a useful elevation.

Madagascar

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

Grow Dracaena marginata? Add it to a free garden and its full profile opens. Pro opens all 38,374 profiles in the library, plants and fungi.

Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY 3.0 licence, unmodified.