Dracocephalum (Lamiaceae) - dragon-head.
The type specimen Dracocephalum moldavica was named by Linnaeus in 1753. An Asian annual of the mint family. It has large flowers fancied to resemble dragon's heads. It, and other members of the genus, have been called dragon's head. The first time this English name appeared in print was also in 1753 in Chamber's Cyclopaedia.
Dracocephalum moldavica, Gorynych variety.
Photograph: © Bff, from Wikicommons.
Dracoglossum (Dryopteridaceae) - dragon-tongue.
Two species of fern from Central and South America were given this name in 2007. Presumably they are fire-proof.
Dracomonticola (Orchidaceae) - dragon-mountain-dweller.
Changed to this name in 1995, reported in Willdenowia 25(1): 229. That issue is unfortunately in the volume before the online archive starts. The only species of this orchid is Dracomonticola virginea. First described in 1896 as Platanthera virginea. It is found around the Drakensberg (Dragon Mountain) in South Africa but its native area seems to be more widespread than that. The ridge is called uKhahlamba in Zulu, meaning "barrier of raised spears". Those peaks were imagined by European invaders to be the spikes along the back of a vast dragon.
Dracomonticola virginea Natal, South Africa © Cameron McMaster
Free use for non-commercial scientific or educational purposes.
Draconanthes (Orchidaceae) - dragon-flower.
From the fancied resemblance of the flower to a dragon. High altitude Andean orchids. First created as a subgenus Draconanthes of Lepanthes in 1986 (page 32), then two species raised to the new genus in 1996. Pictures at the links of the aberrant dragon-flower and the toadish dragon-flower.
Dracontium - dragon-thing, Dracontioides - dragon-thing-like, Dracunculus - little-dragon and Pseudodracontium - fake dragon-thing (Araceae).
When Linnaeus named the genus Dracontium in 1753 he used the name of a plant used by ancient Greeks and Romans as a medicine. The name in Ancient Greek was δρακόντιον (drakontion) and in Latin dracontium. We can be certain that the ancient Greeks and Romans did not know any of the 24 species of the modern genus Dracontium, as these plants are only found in South America. They are, at least, in the same plant family as the drakontion.
We cannot be absolutely certain about the identification of plants described by ancient botanists but it is pretty sure that the original drakontion was the plant now called Dracunculus vulgaris. The Latin dracunculus was the name of the kitchen herb tarragon, now called Artemisia dracunculus by botanists. Artemisia dracunculus had been renamed as Dracunculus esculentus in 1764 but the name was not accepted as valid because Dracunculus had been used in 1754 for the plants we still know as Dracunculus. A Czech botanist called Jiří Soják appears to have tried to change the name to Draconia dracunculus in 1983. As I can't even find the paper, I assume Čas. Nár. Muz. Praze, Rada Přír. 152(1): 20. 1983 was just ignored.
The less-tasty Russian tarragon used to be treated as a separate species called Artemisia dracunculoides (little-dragon-like) but it is now considered to be a variety of the same species as French tarragon. This relative of daisies and sunflowers is completely unrelated to the botanical genus Dracunculus which is in the Swiss cheese plant, titan arum and peace lily family.
The modern genus Dracunculus has two species, Dracunculus vulgaris in mainland Europe and Algeria and Dracunculus canariensis on the Canary Islands and Madeira. The plant has been called dragons, green dragons and dragonwort in English. They were also called by the more mundane name brook leek. The small dragonwort was Arum maculatum. In Spanish they are called dragontea. I have previously put up pictures from my Spanish holiday of the dragontea menor, various species of Arisarum.
A vulgar little dragon, Dracunculus vulgaris.
Photograph: © Pleinair, from Wikicommons.
Pseudodracontium has seven recognised species but they are all fakes. So who cares?
Dracontomelon (Anacardiaceae) - dragon-apple - not melon.
A tropical fruit-tree related to cashews and mangos. The first European description by Georg Eberhard Rumphius in 1741 mentioned that the local name boa rau meant dragon-apple. The gent in the video seems as unconcerned about getting views as I am. Let's see if my massive readership can double the two likes he already had before I added one.
Dracophilus (Aizoaceae) - dragon-lover.
One of the first species described was called Dracophilus montis-draconis, the dragon-mountain dragon-lover. As this pretty little succulent member of the mesembryanthemum family comes from South Africa I would assume the plants are from the Drakensberg (Dragon Mountain) in South Africa. The first botanical description was in Möllers Deutsche Gärtner-Zeitung (1927) 42: 187. This volume is not available online and there is very little else about the plants online.
Dracophyllum (Ericaceae) - dragon-leaf.
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Dracophyllum verticillatum from Voyage in search of
La Pérouse by Jacques Julien Houton de Labillardière.
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There are currently 53 accepted species and 8 hybrids.
Dracophyllum balansae in flower on New Caledonia
Dracophyllum verticillatum at 41:28.
Dracophyllum verticillatum at 41:28.
Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't on Youtube.
Uploaded 02/02/2020
Dracosciadium (Apiaceae) - dragon-parasol.
Named in their first description by a botanist in 1986. The dragon in the name comes from their native range in the Drakensberg (Dragon Mountain) in South Africa. There are two accepted species. The suffix -sciadium is commonly used in names of the celery family (Umbelliferae of Apiaceae) due to the fancied resemblance of the flowering tops to parasols or umbrellas. From the ancient Greek σκιάδειον (skiadeion) a parasol, related to σκιά (skia), a shadow.
Dracula (Orchidaceae) - little-dragon.
The genus Dracula was named when separated from the genus Masdevallia in 1978. The inventor of the genus name Dracula insisted that the name was derived
From the Latin dracula, "a little dragon" (draco, "dragon"), in allusion to the fancied appearance of many of the species.There is no word dracula in Latin, though draco is, of course the word for dragon. The closest word is dracunculus. The famous nickname of Vlad Tepes came from mediæval Romanian, not Latin. Romanian was descended from Latin in part. It seems clear that Carlyle A Luer of the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota, Florida was trying to avoid objections to naming a genus after a popular vampire. Luer had collected an orchid from the wild and named it Masdevallia vampira earlier in 1978, the same year it then became Dracula vampira. Even then he had claimed that the etymology was:
Named for the resemblance of the flowers to a bat; from old middle European vampir, and Vampirus, a genus of bats.Vampires were not originally connected to bats, of course. The word may have originally meant a evil witch. Like the screech owl/witch strix or striga of the Romans, which sucked the blood of children.
Vampyrum spectrum is the great false vampire bat from Central and South America. Vampirus and Vampyrus were previous spellings.
Dracula vampira, the vampiric Dracula.
Photograph: © Eric Hunt, from Wikicommons.
These orchids tend to be weird, creepy and rather gothic. It may be noteworthy that Hammer Films produced 8 Dracula films from 1960 to 1974, six having Christopher Lee as the Count. Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire was published in 1976. Vampires were having a bit of a moment in the mid-70s. Luer kept to the vampire theme when he later named Dracula chiroptera (chiroptera means bat), Dracula nosferatu and Dracula vlad-tepes. Luer also used the name of a dragon for Dracula fafnir but somebody else named Dracula smaug.
Dracula benedictii, the blessed Dracula*.
Photograph: © Orchi, from Wikicommons.
* I know it is named after someone called
Benedict, but where's the fun in that?
Microdracoides (Cyperaceae) - tiny dragonish thing.
Only one species in this genus, the scaly tiny dragonish thing, Microdracoides squamosus. This member of the sedge, tigernut and papyrus family looks remarkably like a tiny dragon tree, Dracaena draco, originally said to only reach 30cm (1 foot) tall. It seems that some were found in a more favourable location that can reach 1.5m (4 foot 11 inches), black & white photo at the link. They grow in areas with a dry season. The first botanical description in 1906 is rather odd in naming the plant after draco but saying it looks like a Pandanus. It was found in Guinea in Africa, which was named French Guinea at the time of its description. Some authors describing this plant have confused French Guinea with French Guyana in South America. Microdracoides squamosus is found in two areas separated by more than 2,500 km (1,500 miles) - Guinea/ Sierra Leone and Nigeria/Cameroon.
There is another member of the family Cyperaceae found in Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela with a similar growth habit, Cephalocarpus dracaenula. It was first described in 1842. It is a little more slender.
Microdracoides squamosus in Cameroon © Henk Beentje
Free use for non-commercial scientific or educational purposes.
