The Dragon Tree Grove of Neves

The Regional Government of Madeira bought this piece of land for one reason: the trees standing on it. The Nucleo dos Dragoeiros das Neves is a small purpose-built garden in Sao Goncalo, five kilometres out of central Funchal, laid out around what the island's register calls a notable group of centenary dragon trees. It has an information centre, opening hours, a phone number and guided visits available on request, which is remarkable treatment for a garden you can cross in a minute, and it tells you how little of Madeira's original dragon tree population is left. Dracaena draco is native here and to the Canaries and almost nowhere else, and it grows slowly enough to make the register's word centenarios mean something: roughly ten years to reach two or three metres. The thickest trunk in the group measures 4.77 metres around and the stand reaches 13 metres. The register gives no age beyond centenary, and this page invents none. Cut the bark and the sap runs red. That is dragon's blood, imported into Europe for centuries as a dye, a varnish and a medicine, and the trees were tapped hard for it. Entry is free, the information centre keeps weekday hours, and the whole visit takes twenty minutes.