Dracaena umbraculifera: taxon details and analytics
- Domain
- Kingdom
- Plantae
- Phylum
- Tracheophyta
- Class
- Liliopsida
- Order
- Asparagales
- Family
- Asparagaceae
- Genus
- Dracaena
- Species
- Dracaena umbraculifera
- Scientific Name
- Dracaena umbraculifera
Summary description from Wikipedia:
Dracaena umbraculifera
Dracaena umbraculifera is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae. It is a tree that was only known from botanical gardens since the end of the 18th century, the original sample was labelled as originating from the island nation of Mauritius. It was declared to be extinct by the IUCN in 1997. This was clearly incorrect, as there are living specimens in botanical gardens around the world. Searches on Mauritius failed to find any trees, however, so it was thought that the IUCN probably should have more correctly assessed the species as 'extinct in the wild'. As such a team of researchers at the Missouri Botanical Garden decided to 'reintroduce' the species back to Mauritius in 2011, clones were propagated by cuttings and planted out in Mauritius in 2012.
Only a year later, however, this also proved to be a mistake. A user called 'Timrann' posting in 2007 on the US website Dave's Garden, a gardening forum, sought to identify a plant in his collection: "Please help me identify this plant [Dracaena umbraculifera]. It grows in N-East of Madagascar in an island called Ste Marie, Illes Aux Nattes". This spurred an effort by a field team to locate the species on Île Sainte-Marie in 2013, and sure enough, it was found in the wild in at least five different surveying localities, ergo, the species was not 'extinct in the wild' after all, and it was now an introduced species on Mauritius.
The team of researchers then published a journal article in 2018 in which the results of their recent microsatellite genotype testing revealed that the species was closer related to species of Dracaena from Madagascar than to species from Mauritius.
Parent Taxon
Sibling Taxa
- Dracaena acaulis
- Dracaena acutissima
- Dracaena adamii
- Dracaena afromontana
- Dracaena aletriformis
- Dracaena americana
- Dracaena angustifolia
- Dracaena aubryana
- Dracaena bhitalae
- Dracaena bicolor
- Dracaena borneensis
- Dracaena brachyphylla
- Dracaena brachystachys
- Dracaena braunii
- Dracaena breviflora
- Dracaena bueana
- Dracaena bukedea
- Dracaena bushii
- Dracaena calocephala
- Dracaena cambodiana
- Dracaena camerooniana
- Dracaena cantleyi
- Dracaena cerasifera
- Dracaena chahinianii
- Dracaena chiniana
- Dracaena cincta
- Dracaena cinnabari
- Dracaena cochinchinensis
- Dracaena concinna
- Dracaena conferta
- Dracaena congoensis
- Dracaena cristula
- Dracaena cubensis
- Dracaena curtisii
- Dracaena cuspidata
- Dracaena draco
- Dracaena ellenbeckiana
- Dracaena elliptica
- Dracaena finlaysonii
- Dracaena floribunda
- Dracaena fontanesiana
- Dracaena fragrans
- Dracaena glomerata
- Dracaena goldieana
- Dracaena granulata
- Dracaena griffithii
- Dracaena haemanthoides
- Dracaena halemanuensis
- Dracaena hewittii
- Dracaena hokouensis
- Dracaena hosei
- Dracaena impressivenia
- Dracaena jayniana
- Dracaena kaweesakii
- Dracaena kenyensis
- Dracaena kirkii
- Dracaena kupensis
- Dracaena laevifolia
- Dracaena lancea
- Dracaena lancifolia
- Dracaena lavranii
- Dracaena laxissima
- Dracaena longifolia
- Dracaena maingayi
- Dracaena mannii
- Dracaena marina
- Dracaena mokoko
- Dracaena multiflora
- Dracaena nitens
- Dracaena novoguineensis
- Dracaena nyangensis
- Dracaena ombet
- Dracaena ovata
- Dracaena pachyphylla
- Dracaena parviflora
- Dracaena penangensis
- Dracaena pendula
- Dracaena perrottetii
- Dracaena petiolata
- Dracaena phanerophlebia
- Dracaena phrynioides
- Dracaena porteri
- Dracaena praetermissa
- Dracaena purpurea
- Dracaena reflexa
- Dracaena rosulata
- Dracaena sanderiana
- Dracaena sarawakensis
- Dracaena scabra
- Dracaena serrulata
- Dracaena siamica
- Dracaena singapurensis
- Dracaena specksii
- Dracaena spicata
- Dracaena steudneri
- Dracaena surculosa
- Dracaena tamaranae
- Dracaena terniflora
- Dracaena tholloniana
- Dracaena thwaitesii
- Dracaena timorensis
- Dracaena transvaalensis
- Dracaena umbraculifera
- Dracaena umbratica
- Dracaena usambarensis
- Dracaena viridiflora
- Dracaena wakaensis
- Dracaena waltersiae
- Dracaena xiphophylla
- Dracaena yuccifolia
- Dracaena × masseffiana


