description
Calamus draco is a member of the Arecaceae or Palmae family. The long,
slender stems of this plant are flexible, and the older trees develop
climbing propensities. The leaves have prickly stalks which often grow into
long tails and the bark is provided with many hundreds of flattened spines.
The berries are about the size of a cherry, and pointed. When ripe they are
covered with a reddish, resinous substance.
While the plants are young the trunk is erect, and resembles an elegant, slender
palm tree, armed with innumerable dark-colored, flattened elastic spines, often
disposed in oblique rows, with their bases united. The leaves are pinnate, their
sheaths in petioles armed as above described; leaflets single, alternate,
margins remotely armed with stiff, slender bristles, as are also the ribs; 12 to
18 inches long and about 3/4 inch broad. The spadix of the female is
hermaphrodite and inserted by means of a short, armed petiole on the mouth of
the sheath opposite to the leaf, and resembles a common oblong panicle. Spathes
several, one to each of the 4 or 5 primary ramifications of the spadix,
lanceolate and leathery; all smooth except the exterior or lower one, which is
armed on the outside.
Calyx turbinate, ribbed, mouth 3-toothed, by the swelling
of the ovary split into 3 portions, and in this manner adhering, together with
the corolla, to the ripe berries. Corolla 3-cleft; divisions ovate-lanceolate,
twice as long as the calyx, and permanent. Filaments 6, very broad, and inserted
into the base of the corolla. Anthers filiform, and seemingly abortive. Ovary
oval; style short; stigmas 3-cleft; divisions revolute and glandular on the
inside. The berry is round, pointed, and of the size of a cherry.
common names & nomenclature
The red, bubbles that appear as the substance heats up when burned as
incense resemble boiling blood, thus the common name, Dragon’s blood resin.
Also known as:
dragons blood palm, blume, draconis resina, sanguis draconis, daemomorops draco
