Exploring the historical distribution of Dracaena cinnabari using ethnobotanical knowledge on Socotra Island, Yemen

Abstract

Background: In this study, we present and analyze toponyms referring to Socotra Island's endemic dragon's blood tree (Dracaena cinnabari) in four areas on the Socotra Archipelago UNESCO World Heritage site (Republic of Yemen). The motivation is the understanding of the past distribution of D. cinnabari trees which is an important part of conservation efforts by using ethnobotanical data. We assumed that dragon's blood trees had a wider distribution on Socotra Island in the past.

Methods: This research was based on field surveys and interviews with the indigenous people. The place names (toponyms) were recorded in both Arabic and the indigenous Socotri language. We grouped all toponyms into five different categories according to the main descriptor: terrain, human, plant, water, and NA (unknown). Also, this study identified current and historical Arabic names of dragon's blood trees of the genus Dracaena through literature review.

Results: A total of 301 toponyms were recorded from the four study areas in Socotra Island. Among names related to plants, we could attribute toponyms to nine different plants species, of which six toponyms referred to the D. cinnabari tree, representing 14.63% of the total phytotoponyms in the category. Three historical naming periods prior to 2000 could be identified. The most commonly used name for dragon's blood trees (D. cinnabari, D. serrulata, D. ombet) appears to be "ahrieb" "إعريهب" and its resin "dum al-akhawin" "دم الأخوين," while derived (mixed-cooked) products are called "eda'a" "إيدع," while regionally different names can be found.

Conclusion: The place names that refer to D. cinnabari are herein suggested to represent remnant areas of once large populations. Therefore, the toponyms may support known hypotheses based on climate models that D. cinnabari had a wider distribution on Socotra Island in the past. This study also confirmed the historical importance of dragon's blood.

Keywords: Dragon’s Blood Tree; Dum al-akhawin; Ethnobotany; Phytotoponym; Socotra Island; Toponymy.

Fig. 1

Map showing the study areas (Hagher, Momi, Qatanin, Ma’aleh) in integrating two maps with the current and potential distribution of D. cinnabari according to Maděra et al. [54] and Attorre et al. [47], respectively

Fig. 2

Different names of dragon’s blood resin and tree (written in red) as derived from the literature (first century ad–2000 ad). The literature list and the years listed in Table 1

Fig. 3

Frequency of appearing of dragon’s blood (tree and resin) names in literature from 1st century ad to 2000 ad, T/R means that the name is given to both the tree and the resin, references listed in Table 2

Fig. 4

Frequency of toponym categories in the four selected areas on Socotra, summary of 301 names

Fig. 5

Frequency of toponym categories within each area

Fig. 6

Frequency of phytotoponyms in the subcategory referring to identified plants (genus/species), including Dracaena cinnabari (27.3% of the subcategory)

Fig. 7

The map of the distribution of the toponyms related to the D. cinnabari tree (green circles) in Socotra Island, in red, the current distribution of D. cinnabari by Maděra et al. [54]

Fig. 8

Map of new sites of dragon’s blood tree from the fieldwork (white polygon with dots), not published by Maděra et al. [54] (red color), and possible sites for dragon’s blood tree according to the local community for further field research (blue polygons), toponyms related to D. cinnabari (green points)