welwitschia (Eng.), tumboa, n'tumbo (Angolan), tweeblaarkanniedood (Afr.), !kharos (Nama/Damara), nyanka (Damara), khurub (Nama), onyanga (Herero)
Across the northern Namib desert, a truly unique plant has been flourishing, almost unchanged, for thousands of years.
Namib desert is extending for 1,900 km along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Namibe (formerly Moçâmedes) in Angola southward across Namibia to the Olifants River in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It rises gradually from the coast, to about 900 m, to the foot of the Great Escarpment, 130 to 160 km inland.
Namib, from the Nama language, implying “an area where there is nothing”
Welwitschia mirabilis can survive for hundreds of years. Optimised survivor, it absorbs groundwater trapped beneath the sand and sea moisture fed by trade winds
Weird, peculiar, wonderful, strange, bizarre, fascinating, unique
Its has 2 unique large, strap like leaves that grow continuously and are gradually shredded into many, often dead-looking segments (by wind and animals mostly).
There are purely male and purely female plants (dioecious):
The pollen cones are a pinkish colour, oblong with small stigma-like growths on them. The seed cones are blue-green, larger than the pollen cones, but more rounded. Both cones produce a sugar-rich nectar-like substance
Screenshots above depict a very alive over 100 y/o individual
space and science 2024 Documentary, 4K UHD:
Namibia's Living Desert: A Story of Adaptation and Survival
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoZvjM3Anek
https://pza.sanbi.org/welwitschia-mirabilis