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Swamp dragons (draco vulgaris) are fictitious creatures from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.

Swamp dragons are small, fly badly and tend to explode, due to the generation of various flammable gasses in their internal plumbing. They are, in short, dragons as they would have to be in order to work in reality. For some reason they are popular pets, and there are a number of different breeds.

A male swamp dragons is called a pewmet between hatching and eight months, a cock between eight and fourteen months, a snood between fourteen months and two years, and a cobb between two years and death. A female swamp dragon is called a hen until her third clutch, and a dam thereafter. A dead swamp dragon of either sex is called a crater.

The portrayal of dragon-breeders (such as Lady Sybil Ramkin) in the books is a parody of "horsey" upper-class people, although there are also similarities to pedigree dog-breeding (in particular, the Ankh-Morpork Cavern Club is a parody of Kennel Clubs.

Far in the past, some of them learnt how to utilise magic to become the graceful creatures of legend (draco nobilis). However this took more magic than the Discworld could really provide, and they disappeared into a pocket dimension. They can be released, briefly and singly, by a sufficient expenditure of magical force. (See The Colour of Magic and Guards! Guards!)

Swamp dragons are also related to Moon dragons (draco lunaris) and Star-voyaging dragons (draco stellaris nauticae) as seen in The Last Hero. (See Fauna of the Discworld for more information on dragons.)

In The Colour of Magic, a brief line suggests swamp dragons are flightless, flameless and extinct. GURPS Discworld suggests this may be a subspecies of the swamp dragons seen in later books.