Wood anatomy, physical and mechanical properties and decay resistance of the monocotyledon Dracaena mannii Baker from the Central African Republic were determined and compared with the wood of two dicotyledons of the comparable density. Despite of the completely different anatomical structure the mechanical properties of Dracaena are comparable to the dicotyledonous wood of comparable density. As opposed to mechanical properties the radial and tangential shrinkage in Dracaena is twice as great as in dicots of comparable density and the ratio of tangential to radial shrinkage is almost 3:1.