Perhaps the most striking plant on Soqotra is the Dragon's Blood Tree (Dracaena cinnabari), distinguished by its mushroomshaped silhouette. Dragon's Blood forest is a common sight above 500 m on Soqotra and in global terms represents a unique vegetation type. The tree's nearest relative, in the Canary Islands (D. draco), is now almost wiped out in the wild. Pollen records indicate that 20 million years ago the trees stretched from the Canaries to southern Russia.

Dragon's blood, a crimson resin obtained from the bark and highly prized since ancient times, Was used as a pigment in paint, for treating dysentery and burns, fastening loose teeth, enhancing the colour of precious stones, and staining glass, marble and the wood of Italian violins. Although no longer of commercial value, dragon's blood is still an important resource for the Soqotrans. They use it to cure stomach problems, dye wool, freshen breath, decorate pottery and houses, even as lipstick.

Like the Dragon's Blood Tree, many Soqotran endemics appear to be relics of ancient floras which have adapted to island life. Plants on Soqotra have to cope with an extreme climate of low rainfall and hot summer winds of up to 70 miles per hour, combined with a harsh terrain of semi-desert plains, limestone plateaux and steep granite mountains.

The most conspicuous survival strategy is the evolution of swollen, bottle-shaped trunks, which provide water during drought periods and vital wind protection. The Soqotran Desert Rose (Adenium obesum subsp. sokotranum) grows a silvery trunk sometimes up to 3 m in diameter, while the bulbous Soqotran Fig (Dorstenia gigas) clings to ledges and sheer cliff-faces where few plants survive. Together with Cucumber Tree (Dendrosicyos socotrana), these peculiar trees form unique succulent shrubland on the slopes and exposed ridges of the limestone plateau.

On one area of Soqotra plants lead a slightly easier life. Throughout the year, the rugged granite pinnacles of the Haggeher mountains attract heavy cloud which brings much-needed moisture to the plants of the pinnacles - hence Soqotra's ancient name, "Isle of Mists".

Almost all the plants here grow nowhere else in the world. Every trip to the pinnacles, surrounded by almost impenetrable vegetation, uncovers new species, as well as more familiar ones. Botanists who recently reached the highest pinnacle for the first time found the widespread fern Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) growing among the Dragon's Blood Trees.