Hawaiian Dragon Tree

The Hawaiian Dragon Tree (Dracaena aurea) is locally known as the golden hala pepe. This species of dragon tree is endemic to the island of Kauaʻi in Hawaii. As Kauaʻi's climate is tropical, with generally humid and stable conditions year-round, it has the perfect conditions for dragon trees.

As this species of dragon tree is far removed from other places where the genus grows, no one knows how it arrived on that rather remote island. Some think that, between 400 and 1100, Polynesian long-distance navigators carried seeds with them, but those seeds have no known use. Others claim that early western visitors imported the tree for landscaping, but the Hawaiian landscape is perfect and doesn't need extra species of plants to beautify it.

It is a small evergreen tree, usually not more than six meters in height, although in perfect conditions it may reach up to twelve metres. The gray, straight trunk has a diameter of 30 to 90 centimetres. The sword-shaped leaves are 20 to 50 centimetres long and one to three centimetres wide. This species has small yellowish (or golden) flowers.

The first part of its scientific name, Dracaena, is a feminine form of the Greek word drakon and therefore means 'female dragon'. The second part, aurea, is derived from the Latin word aurum, which means 'gold'.

The Hawaiian Dragon Tree inhabits coastal mesic and mixed mesic forests at elevations between 120 and 1,000 meters. For those of you who want to know what 'mesic' means: In ecology, a mesic habitat is a type of habitat with a moderate or well-balanced supply of moisture.

Its leaves and flower buds are used to treat chills, high fever, lung trouble, and bad cases of asthma. The tree was also associated with sorcery.