A mostly low shrubby plant but it can grow to over 5 m tall. Leaves stalkless, towards the tips of the branches, spreading and bending down, to over 1 m long and about 10 cm wide, lanceolate with the midrib prominent below only. Flower cluster with a zig-zag stem. Flowers mostly 1.5-2.5 cm wide, white, fragrant. Fruit an orange-red berry.
Tropical Africa
The Compacta Group of cultivars includes D. 'Compacta', 'Compacta Purpurea' and 'Compacta Variegata'.
D. goldieana Bak. transversely grey striped
D. surculosa Lindl. syn. D. godseffiana Bak. which may be spotted or have ringed variegations as in D. 'Florida Beauty'.
D. sanderiana M.T. Mast. long-stalked and, in its variegated cultivars, has longitudinal creamy stripes.
D. deremensis Engl. is sometimes treated as the Deremensis Group of cultivars and it includes the popular cultivar D. 'Warneckeri', Striped Dracaena, which has two white stripes. Plants long grown as D. marginata Lam. from Réunion are possibly misidentified; there are several cultivars including: D. 'Tricolor' with white variegations and also D. 'Bicolor', D. 'Colorama' and D. 'Black Knight'.
Source: (2005). Dracaena. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Updated by: Rob Cross, March 2018
Leaves with broad creamy-marginal stripes.
Dracaena fragrans 'Massangeana'
Leaves with a central yellow stripe.
As for D. fragrans 'Lindenii' but the marginal stripes broad, glossy and rich yellow.
