This dragon tree is more than twice as wide as it is tall: 6.2 metres of height under a crown almost 14 metres across, on a trunk 4.75 metres round. Dracaena draco grows that way on purpose. It puts up a stem, flowers, then forks, over and over, until an old one looks like an umbrella made of umbrellas. Nobody can date it properly. Dragon trees lay down no annual rings, so every age published for one is worked back from the branching or from records. The register recorded 200 years when it was measured in 2010, which makes it roughly 215 now, and that is about as precise as this species allows. It grows in the Quinta Conde dos Arcos, a private estate the Lisbon council expropriated in 1940 and later opened as a nine-hectare park in Olivais. The old palace holds the municipal gardening school. The parish council names this dragon tree as the one tree of public interest among the 28 species growing there, and runs free guided walks on set dates through the year. The sap runs red where the bark is cut, which is where the name comes from. Dragon's blood was shipped out of the Canaries and Madeira as a dye and a medicine for centuries before anyone thought to plant one of these in Lisbon.
Parque Urbano da Quinta Conde dos Arcos, Alameda D. Afonso Henriques area, Olivais, LisboaYou can recognise it by a crown nearly 14 metres across on a trunk barely 6.2 metres tall, wider than it is high. It stands in the Quinta Conde dos Arcos park in Olivais, near the old palace.
Free, public urban park (three gates, open roughly 6:30am to 8-10pm depending on season)
In Olivais; nearest metro is Encarnacao or Bela Vista (Red Line), roughly 15-20 minutes' walk
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
- In the official register: Arvoredo de Interesse Público (ICNF), no. KNJ1/323
- ICNF, Arvoredo de Interesse Publico (CC BY 4.0), processo KNJ1/323
- olivais.pt
- lisboa.pt