Dracaena transvaalensis
The Wolkberg dragon tree is a rare, aloe-like small tree endemic to the Olifants River valley near Penge, the adjacent Wolkberg and the Blyde River Canyon area in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, South Africa. It grows on steep dolomite slopes in deciduous woodland with hot, wet summers and a long, dry, cool winter, so it needs a very bright position, sharp drainage and a dry winter rest.
Where it grows wild
Specimen labels describe dense, closed deciduous woodland on steep south-facing slopes over dolomite along the Olifants River, and hill slopes at the foot of Abel Erasmus Pass. South-facing slopes are the cooler, shadier aspect in the southern hemisphere, and the deciduous canopy lets in much more light in the dry winter.
The one specimen with an elevation was collected at about 800 m in the Blyde River Canyon; the known sites lie roughly between 700 and 1200 m.
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The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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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 4.0 licence, unmodified.