Nobody can tell you how old this tree is, and that is a property of the species rather than a gap in the paperwork. A dragon tree is not a tree in the ordinary sense. It lays down no annual rings, so the one method that reliably ages an oak or a beech simply does not apply. Botanists count branch generations instead, because the crown forks only after each flowering, which happens at intervals of a decade or more. What that produces is this shape, a trunk splitting into a tight umbrella of stiff blue-green blades that looks less grown than engineered. Its sap runs red, which is where the name comes from and why the resin was traded across medieval Europe as dragon's blood, used for varnish, medicine and dye. The species belongs to the Canary Islands and Madeira, where it is now scarce in the wild. This one has stood among the palms and benches near the centre of the garden since some point after 1852, quietly outliving every gardener who has worked around it, and Lisbon has a second on our map in the botanical garden at Ajuda.
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Getting there
Jardim da Estrela (Jardim Guerra Junqueiro), Praça da Estrela, 1200-667 Lisboa
You can recognise it by a trunk forking into a tight umbrella of stiff blue-green blades; cut the bark and the sap runs red. It stands among the palms near the centre of Jardim da Estrela.
Free, open daily 07:00 to midnight
Tram 25E or 28E to Estrela (Basílica), then about 2 min walk
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.
