Type-locality. Cayenne, French Guiana, corrected by Hoogmoed & Lescure (1975) to Amapá, Brazil, north of Rio Araguari.
Pertinent taxonomic references. Daudin (1802), Merrem (1820), Duméril & Bibron (1839), Boulenger (1885), Cunha (1961), Vanzolini (1961), Vanzolini & Valencia (1966), Gorman (1970), Hoogmoed & Lescure (1975), Duellman (1978), Ávila-Pires (1995), Massary et al. (2000), Harvey et al. (2012).
Distribution and habitat. Dracaena guianensis is endemic to Amazonia, distributed along the Amazon River and some of its main tributaries, and the coastal area in Brazil (Fig. 6). We examined material from Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil (states of Amapá, Pará, and Amazonas) (Fig. 6), but it also occurs in French Guiana, Colombia, and in Maranhão state, in Brazil (Daudin 1802; Ayala 1986; Vanzolini & Valencia 1966, respectively). Despite its wide distribution, there are few records of D. guianensis from the wild in collections and in scientific literature (in contrast to CITES trade records, especially in the 1980’s—http://www.cites.org/eng/resources/quotas/index.shtml). It is semiaquatic and diurnal, inhabits seasonally flooded lowlands, swamps, small streams and lakes, where it is found in the water, on the ground near water, and on branches of low trees emerging from water (Vanzolini 1961; Vanzolini & Valencia 1966; Crump 1971; Dixon & Soini 1975, 1986; Duellman 1978; Duellman & Salas 1991; Ávila-Pires 1995; Mesquita et al. 2006b; Vitt et al. 2008); found also in perianthropic environments (Dixon & Soini 1975, and specimens from Belém, Brazil).