Dracaena Vand. ex L.

Overview

Dracaena belongs to the family Asparagaceae; Kew gives its native range as the tropics and subtropics, and the species WCVP accepts are listed below. Flora of Somalia notes that several species are grown as ornamentals, chiefly for their often patterned leaves.

Florists and plant shops sell lucky bamboo, D. sanderiana — which Kew records as a subshrub or shrub native to west-central tropical Africa to north-eastern Angola, not a bamboo at all — the snake plant, D. trifasciata, and the corn plant, D. fragrans.

Classification and characters

WCVP cites Linnaeus’s Mantissa Plantarum (1767) as the place of publication. The most notable synonym is Sansevieria. Using nuclear and plastid DNA markers, Takawira-Nyenya and colleagues (2018) found Dracaena to be a paraphyletic grade with two Sansevieria clades nested inside it, so they argued for a broader Dracaena that absorbs Sansevieria and made new combinations for several species. WCVP follows this, which is why the snake plant is D. trifasciata rather than Sansevieria trifasciata. A later paper argued that merging all dracaenoids into one genus is premature, as the 2018 study sampled only about a fifth of the species. The synonym Cordyline Adans. merely shares its name with the ti-plant genus, Cordyline Comm. ex R.Br., which remains separate.

The floras gathered by Kew describe trees, shrubs, sometimes scandent, or herbs, the stems often with persistent leaf scars and the roots often orange; alternate leaves with a sheathing base and parallel veins; usually white or greenish, fragrant, night-opening flowers with a tubular perianth of six recurving lobes; and a globose berry, often red, orange or yellow, with one to three seeds.

Distribution

WCVP records the genus as native to 101 TDWG botanical regions and introduced in 35 more.

Introduced

AscensionAzoresBahamasBalearesBermudaCayman Is.Cook Is.Dominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFijiFloridaGalápagosHaitiJamaicaJuan Fernández Is.Leeward Is.MadeiraMarianasMarshall Is.NauruNew Zealand NorthNiueNorfolk Is.Ogasawara-shotoPuerto RicoSardegnaSociety Is.Trinidad-TobagoTuamotuTunisiaVanuatuVenezuelan AntillesWake I.Windward Is.

Accepted species

WCVP accepts 225 species; names with × are natural hybrids. The count changes with revisions; checked 2026-10-28.

Historic plates

Plates in date order; the printed names are kept as they appear, current names are on the species pages and the topic page.

• 

  Dracæna Draco
  Sansevieria fragrans

  Fragmenta Botanica, figuris coloratis illustrata · T. 2 · 1800–1809
  
• 

  Sansevieria fragrans

  Fragmenta Botanica, figuris coloratis illustrata · 33 · 1800
  
• 

  Cordyline rumphii

  Curtis's Botanical Magazine · 4279 · 1847
  Walter Hood Fitch

Water culture and safety

Michigan State University Extension’s answer: lucky bamboo can be grown in water but is sensitive to fluoride and chlorine, both found in tap water, so rain or distilled water is recommended. The University of British Columbia article it cites says Dracaena species are easily affected, and sometimes killed, by fluoride. Keep the plant in bright, indirect light, out of direct sun.

The ASPCA lists Dracaena spp., including D. fragrans, as toxic to dogs and cats, and D. fragrans also to horses; the toxic principles are saponins, and signs include vomiting (occasionally with blood), depression, anorexia, hypersalivation and, in cats, dilated pupils. The snake plant is likewise listed as toxic to dogs and cats, causing nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Further reading

• Reference library

References

1. WCVP · World Checklist of Vascular Plants (via ChecklistBank dataset 2232) · accessed 2026-10-28
2. Kew (POWO data on the ColPlanta site) · Dracaena, with Trees of New Guinea, Flora of Tropical East Africa and Flora of Somalia
3. Kew (POWO data on the ColPlanta site) · Dracaena sanderiana native range
4. Takawira-Nyenya et al. 2018 · Sansevieria is a herbaceous clade within Dracaena (Phytotaxa 376: 254–276)
5. Michigan State University Extension (Ask Extension) · growing lucky bamboo in water
6. ASPCA Animal Poison Control · Dracaena
7. ASPCA Animal Poison Control · Snake Plant