welwitschia

(wɛlˈwɪtʃɪə) n (Plants) a gymnosperm plant, Welwitschia mirabilis, of the Namib Desert in SW Africa, consisting of two large woody leaves lying on the ground with a conelike structure arising between them: phylum Gnetophyta[C19: named after F. M. J. Welwitsch (1807–72), Portuguese botanist, born in Austria]

Thesaurus

Noun

welwitschia - curious plant of arid regions of southwestern Africa having a yard-high and yard-wide trunk like a turnip with a deep taproot and two large persistent woody straplike leaves growing from the base; living relic of a flora long disappeared; some may be 700-5000 years oldWelwitschia mirabilisgymnosperm - plants of the class Gymnospermae having seeds not enclosed in an ovarygenus Welwitchia, genus Welwitschia - type and sole genus of Welwitschiaceae

Translations

Welwitschia

enUK

Welwitschia

(Welwitschia bainesii, W. mirabilis), a gymnospermous dioecious plant of the Welwitschiaceae family. The single representative of this family grows on the infertile rocky soils of southwest Angola and in the Namib and Kalahari deserts. The long powerful roots of the welwitschia reach to the level of the ground waters. The stalk is low and thick (to 1.2 m in diameter) and columnar; its greatest part is hidden in the ground, with only a small portion (to 0.5 m) emerging above. The upper part of the stalk is more or less saddle-like or bilobate with thong-like leathery leaves (to 3 m long) along the edges of the laminae. The leaves are retained until the end of the plant’s life (100 years and more). On adult plants the leaves break into ribbon-like strips.

REFERENCE

A. L. Takhtadzhian. Vysshie rasteniia, vol. 1. Moscow-Leningrad, 1956.

welwitschia

Related to welwitschia: gnetum

noun

Synonyms for welwitschia

noun curious plant of arid regions of southwestern Africa having a yard-high and yard-wide trunk like a turnip with a deep taproot and two large persistent woody straplike leaves growing from the base

Synonyms

Welwitschia mirabilis

Related Words

gymnosperm
genus Welwitchia
genus Welwitschia