Encyclopedia > Welwitschia

  Article Content

Welwitschia

Welwitschia is a very odd genus of plants native to southwestern Africa, and containing only one species:

Welwitschia mirabilis Hook. f.

Welwitschia is the only genus of the family Welwitschiacae, in the order Gnetales, in the class Gnetopsida.

This is a desert plant which grows from a short, thick trunk, with only two leaves that continuously grow from their base, and a long, thick taproot.

The age of these plants is difficult to assess, but it's believed that they are very long-lived, possible living to one thousand years or longer.

See also:

  • website of the Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Conservatory:
http://florawww.eeb.uconn.edu/acc_num/199700061
  • the Gymnosperm database
http://www.botanik.uni-bonn.de/conifers/we/welwitschiaceae.htm



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Springs, New York

... have a median income of $42,500 versus $32,107 for females. The per capita income for the town is $29,910. 8.7% of the population and 6.7% of families are below the ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 628.2 ms