From NewScientist:
Image: Wikipedia
Welwitschia is one of the world’s strangest and most resilient plants, living in the exceptionally dry Namib desert, which stretches along the coasts of Angola, Namibia and South Africa. But climate change may push these hardy plants past their limits, suggesting that they should be placed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Vaguely reminiscent of a pile of kelp nowhere near the ocean, welwitschia (Welwitschia mirabilis) is unlike anything else on Earth. The plant consists of just two ever-growing leaves. These can grow to more than 4 metres long erupting out of a subterranean stem. These tough leaves split and coil, turning into a dishevelled, sun-baked heap over the plant’s roughly 1000-year-long lifespan.
Although we’re not nearly that dry. How do they estimate a thousand year lifetime, I wonder…
