Dragon Blood Tree

Dracaena cinnabari

“Bleeds red. Shaped like an umbrella. Grows on an island that looks like Mars.”

Cut the bark and it bleeds crimson-red resin — 'dragon's blood,' used since antiquity as dye, medicine, and varnish. The crown is a dense, inverted umbrella of sword-like leaves, designed to funnel morning mist down to the roots in Socotra's dry season. The island is so isolated that 37% of its plant life exists nowhere else on Earth. Zone 10–11 in the US. One of the most alien-looking trees available to a non-astronaut.