Plant in full sun in a well-drained soil and irrigate very little to not at all. Hardiness is not well known but our plant was not damaged during the January 2007 freeze with 3 nights down to 25° F and the Huntington has had it in their garden since the late 1960s, so presumably it weathered many colder years there.

This plant grows naturally on very hot dry rocky sea facing slopes in a Northern Yemen and Oman on the southern Arabian Peninsula with another form known as far north as Saudi Arabia. In this harsh environment it is sometimes found looking like a tree, but more often has an irregular shape without a well-defined crown. Dracaena serrulata is considered to be Endangered, which is defined as a plant facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future due to population reduction, decline in area of occupancy, extent of occurrence, quality of habitat and potential levels of exploitation.

The name Dracaena comes from the Latin word 'draco', meaning "dragon" that was already used for the specific epithet for this same plant. This new name was ascribed by Linnaeus in 1767 when he renamed the plant originally called Asparagus draco. The specific epithet is in reference to the finely serrated leaf margins. Though visually different, some botanists consider this species to be taxonomically indistinct from the Nubian Dragon Tree, Dracaena ombet, that grows on the Red Sea Hills and Jebel Elba in Sudan and Egypt.

Our plants came from micropropagated plants produced at Rancho Tissue Technology. The original culture was given to them by the Huntington Botanic Garden and originated from seedling plants produced as part of the International Succulent Introductions (ISI) program as Dracaena serrulata ISI 2004-20. This introduction was from plants grown from seed produced by self pollinating the flowering specimen in the Huntington’s Desert Garden. This original plant, Dracaena serrulata (HBG 21109, UCBG 67.552) was collected by John Lavranos in July 1967 at Audhali Plateau, North of Lawdar, Yemen. Our oldest plant of this species, now a nice specimen in a large pot in the garden, is a seedling that was also from the 2004 ISI distribution. 

This information about Dracaena serrulata displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.