Dracaena ombet
An endangered dragon tree of dry mountains around the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa. It grows 2–8 m tall on a forked trunk that bleeds red resin, with dense rosettes of stiff leaves 40–60 cm long at the branch tips. In cultivation it wants what its arid mountain slopes give it: full sun, a very free-draining mineral mix, warm days with cooler nights, and a clear dry season.
Where it grows wild
Rocky slopes and escarpments in arid to semi-arid mountains, often with scattered drought-tolerant woodland and scrub. It grows as a stout-trunked tree rooted in pockets of stony soil. On the coastal mountains of the Red Sea, such as Gebel Elba, the higher slopes catch mist from the sea, which adds moisture in an otherwise very dry climate.
Wikipedia gives 1,000–1,800 m. Our 28 wild records that carry an elevation range from 765 to 2,008 m, with a median of 1,676 m, so it is mainly a plant of mid-elevation dry mountains.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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More Dracaena
Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app.