''Dracaena arborea'', the tree dracaena, is a species of flowering plant in the family
Asparagaceae
Asparagaceae, known as the asparagus family, is a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots. The family name is based on the edible garden asparagus, ''Asparagus officinalis''. Those who live in the temperate c ...
, native to western and west-central wet tropical Africa.
It is used as a
street tree in a number of African and Brazilian cities.
Description
A medium sized tree often reaching in height, sometimes up to , with width up to in diameter. The stem tend to be yellowish brown when young but greyish when mature.
[Bos, J.J. (1984). ''Dracaena in West Africa'' (PhD thesis). Wageningen University.] Leaves commonly exceed in length, sometimes reaching up to , and width often exceeds reaching up to in width; leaves are narrowly oblanceolate in outline.
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...
arranged in pendulous panicles, flowers bunched in groups of 3 to 5 and at the end of branches.
Uses
''Draceena arborea'' is often planted around burial sites to demarcate boundaries in parts of Cameroon and Burundi and is also planted for
ornamental Ornamental may refer to:
*Ornamental grass, a type of grass grown as a decoration
*Ornamental iron, mild steel that has been formed into decorative shapes, similar to wrought iron work
*Ornamental plant, a plant that is grown for its ornamental qua ...
uses.
In parts of Cameroon, a decoction composed of root extracts mixed with
palm wine is sold to people who are told that it will improve male sexual function.
References
arborea
Arborea is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy, whose economy is largely based on agriculture and cattle breeding with production of vegetables, rice, fruit and milk (notably the local milk product Arborea).
Histo ...
Flora of West Tropical Africa
Flora of West-Central Tropical Africa
Plants described in 1821
{{Asparagaceae-stub