Welwitschia Hook.f.

Wonder Plant

Commemorating Austrian botanist and doctor Friedrich Welwitsch who, in 1859, first described this plant from Angola.

Bizarre plant with a partially buried woody stem looking like an inverted elephant foot and up to 1.5 m wide in the wild and a deep tap root. It may be described as a dwarf tree since the flattened stem is a result of the early death of the apical bud and subsequent growth around the rim of the central depression. Leaves two, large, strap-like, growing from 2 grooves at the base of 'foot'. They are the only leaves that the plant produces and may continue to grow outwards from the base for over 100 years; the tips becoming frayed and worn by the rigours of the desert. Old leaves may be up to 3 m long. Plants unisexual the organs cone-like but males with stamens and in the female cones the ovules are still naked though protected by two enveloping scale-like structures. A style-like structure is also present. Seed winged.

A monospecific genus that grows in the Namib desert of South West Africa.

van Jaarsveld, E. & Pond, U. 2013. Welwitschia mirabilis: Uncrowned Monarch of the Namib. Verleger: Cape Town.

Source: Spencer, R. (1995). Welwitschiaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.

Hero image
kingdom Plantae
phylum   Tracheophyta
class    Gnetopsida
order     Welwitschiales
family      Welwitschiaceae
Higher taxa
Subordinate taxa
species        Welwitschia mirabilis Hook.f.