Calle de la Drácena
Named after the dracaena, a tree-like plant with long leaves related to the Canary Island dragon tree, part of the botanical set that names the streets of Nueva España.
The dracaena that names this street is a plant with a woody trunk and long tufted leaves, a close relative of the Canary Island dragon tree. They share a legend-laden name: Dracaena comes from the Greek drákaina, “she-dragon”, for the reddish resin that seeps from the dragon tree’s wounds, the old “dragon’s blood”.
Calle de la Drácena leads into the heart of Nueva España, toward an area of low houses that the neighbourhood labelled with plant names. Anyone walking it treads on the name of a vegetable dragon, though here no red sap shows, only hedges and brick doorways.