Socotra Island, Yemen: Dragon’s Blood Trees, Endemic Plants and History

Umbrella-shaped dragon’s blood trees, swollen bottle-shaped trunks crowned with flowers, and dunes beside turquoise water: Socotra looks like another planet. This Yemeni archipelago in the Indian Ocean has been isolated for so long that more than a third of its plants grow nowhere else on Earth.

Where is Socotra?

Socotra lies in the northwestern Indian Ocean, about 232 km east of Cape Guardafui on the Horn of Africa and about 380 km south of the Arabian Peninsula. The archipelago stretches some 250 km and is made up of four islands and two rocky islets. The main island covers about 3,665 square kilometres, roughly 132 km long, and is home to around 60,000 people. Its capital is Hadibu on the north coast.

The islands rise from coastal plains through a limestone plateau to the granite Hajhir Mountains, whose highest summit, Mashanig, reaches 1,503 metres. The climate is hot and dry. The northeast monsoon from October to December brings most of the rain, while the southwest monsoon from June to September whips up strong winds and high seas.

Socotra’s unique plants and wildlife

According to UNESCO’s Socotra listing, 307 of the archipelago’s 825 plant species, 37%, are endemic. The figures for animals are even higher: 90% of its 34 reptile species and 95% of its 96 land snail species live nowhere else. Socotra records 192 bird species, 44 of which breed on the islands, and its seas hold 253 species of reef-building coral, 730 species of coastal fish and around 300 species of crab, lobster and shrimp.

The most famous resident is the dragon’s blood tree, Dracaena cinnabari, with its dense umbrella crown and the red sap that gives it its name and is used commercially. The last dragon’s blood forest is over-mature, with trees averaging about 300 years old. Equally strange is the cucumber tree, Dendrosicyos socotranus, the only tree in the cucumber family, which stores water in its swollen trunk and can grow more than six metres tall.

For more extraordinary trees from around the world, see our feature on distinctive trees and plants.

History, language and the Greek connection

Socotra has been part of Indian Ocean trade for thousands of years. The first-century Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a Greek sailing guide to the coasts of Africa, Arabia and India, called the island Dioskouridou, “the island of Dioscurides”. Greek sailors left inscriptions in the island’s Hoq Cave, and in the 6th century the Greek merchant Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote about it.

The islanders speak Soqotri, a Semitic language of the Modern South Arabian family, related to Mehri, alongside Arabic.

Visiting Socotra today

Socotra is part of Yemen and has been its own governorate since 2013. The UAE took control of the airport and seaport in 2018, and the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council has governed the island since 2020. Socotra Airport has had weekly scheduled flights from Cairo and Abu Dhabi, often cancelled during the monsoon months.

Check government travel advice before any plans: the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office advises against all travel to Yemen, and that advice covers the whole country, Socotra included. For other landscapes that seem to belong to another world, browse our natural-landscape feature.

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