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Welwitschia Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.
Welwitschia facts for kids
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | Gnetophyta |
| Class: | Gnetopsida |
| Order: | Welwitschiales |
| Family: | Welwitschiaceae |
| Genus: | Welwitschia |
| Binomial name | |
| Welwitschia mirabilis Hook.f. |
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Welwitschia or Welwitschia mirabilis is known as one of the oldest living plants. It can be called a "living fossil". The plant is mainly found in the deserts of Namibia. Some of these plants may be more than 5000 years old. This would make them the oldest living things on Earth.
It is named after the discoverer, Dr. Friedrich Welwitsch. The plant is locally called "long haired thing". Its structure consists of a short, woody, top-shaped stem, and never more than two leaves, which are enormously long, (two or three metres) and break up at the ends.
Images for kids
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Female cones, from Curtis's Botanical Magazine (1863).
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The largest known Welwitschia, nicknamed "The Big Welwitschia", stands 1.4 m tall and is over 4 m in diameter.
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A female plant.
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A female Welwitschia beginning to shed seeds.
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Detail photograph of ripe female cones after seed dispersal
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Detail photograph of male plant and cones
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Proportions
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Cultivated at Huntington Library and botanical garden.
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A Welwitschia in the petrified forest of Khorixas (Namibia).
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Immature nymphs and adult Welwitschia bugs (Probergrothius angolensis).