The Wild Dragon Tree (Dracontomelon Sylvestre)
Collection: The leaves and fruit are collected. The fruit can be eaten right off the tree. The young leaves can be collected, put over a fire, and wilted. This will prevent the leaves' spikes from irritating the skin.
Identification: The leaves are longer and narrower than the domesticated version of the plant. The leaves feel prickly, without having a hairy surface.
Uses: According to Rumphius, the leaves treat syphilis, urinary tract infections, and they get rid of dysuria.
Properties: The plant is antibiotic, anti-infective, anti-treponema antibiotic, analgesic antibiotic, and diuretic.
Characteristics of the Wild Dragon Tree: The leaves are long, narrow, and limp, and they come off of twigs. They are light green in color, and they have hairy stems and undersides. At the tip of the twigs, there is a flower cluster. Flower clusters appear at the tips of twigs. Additionally, some twigs have a few fruit on them, which turn a grayish-yellow when ripe. Only 2 or 3 fruit ripen at a given time.
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Characteristics of the Domestic Dragon Tree: The leaves are less long and narrow than the wild tree, and they grow directly across from each other on the twigs. The leaves are more rough and hairy than the wild version. The flower clusters that appear at the end of branches are large, with the flowers resembling Lilies of the Valley. Like the wild variety, only a few fruit remain and ripen. The fruit on the domestic tree are more smooth, whereas the wild type has pleats and folds in the fruit.
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Finding Different Depictions of the Same Plant: There are many different names for the Wild Dragon Tree, most of which I didn't know of. As a result, I had to look for pictures that looked similar to the illustrations found in Rumphius's book. If additional context was included, I compared it to the information from the primary source, in order to confirm the identities of the different depictions.
Comparisons Between Depictions of the Wild Dragon Tree: In total, I will be referencing to 4 depictions of the plant, including the painting seen in The Ambonese Herbal. The next painting was a watercolor piece done by an unknown artist, titled "cf. Dracontomelon." The piece was placed in the William Kerr collection of Chinese Plants. The third illustration, called Pomum Draconum Sylvestre, painted in the 1700s by Nicolaes Witsen and Hermann Jager. The last illustration, titled Dracontolemlum Magniferum Blume, was painted by a French botanist names Jean Baptiste Louis Pierre. All of the illustrations depict the Wild Dragon Tree, showing the leaves and the fruit. The flowers, on the other hand, are only depicted by only 2 of the paintings.
The illustrations, themselves, look different due to the different painting styles utilized. Rumphius's painting is black and white, and has a lot of details. The second illustration is colored, and has a lot of detail. The third one, by Witsen and Jager, is colored and seems very cartoon-like. It does not look as realistic as the others. The last illustration is black and white and very detailed. It also looks very packed, with not much empty space seen on the page.
The actual depictions of the plant all seem pretty similar. The edges of the leaves are smooth, with a tapered shape. Additionally, the leaves have many veins. The fruit from the tree look similar to one another, with a very round shape. Some of the illustrations have more detailing on the fruit, but the gist is the same. When flowers are included. they all look like little buds.
Explaining the Differences Between the Illustrations: The images have a couple of differences. The first difference is the location where the painters originated from. Rumphius did not paint the illustrations in his book, due to his blindness. However his location likely affected his commissioning of the art. He was from Germany. There's no way to know where the unknown artist, illustrator of the second painting, is from. WItsen and Jager, illustrators of the third painting, were from The Netherlands. Pierre, the illustrator of the last painting, was from France. Historically, different art styles originated from different areas, which would explain the different stylistic choices that the painters made. In addition, the time periods in which each of these pieces were produced could have resulted in significantly different looking work. This can also be due to the simple fact that the painters were not the same. Therefore, they could have put different twists on the illustrations, based off of preference. For instance, Jager and Witsen's painting looked very cartoon-like, which was significantly different than those of the other botanists.