It is a tree-like plant whose small whitish flowers are arranged in a pendulous inflorescence. It is an endemic plant of the islands of Macaronesia. A legends says that the blood-red lymph coming out from the trunk when the bark is cut had healingproperties (for ulcer and dysentery) Many speculations have been made concerning what age the dracaena could reach: Mr. Alexander von Humbolt, reports that a plant in the Orotava valley ( ´Canary Islands ) that was destroyed by a hurricane in 1867 was over 6,000 years old and had a circumference of 27 meters