Weltwitschia - Desert Plant
by Nikolyn McDonald
Title
Weltwitschia - Desert Plant
Artist
Nikolyn McDonald
Medium
Photograph
Description
The weltwitschia is a desert plant that grows in the Namib Desert in Namibia and Angola in Africa. More than a little messy looking, it is unusual in many ways. It doesn’t stand very tall, maybe 5’ at the highest, but its leaves can spread out to a circumference of over 25’. It only has two foliage leaves, but each of those splits into sections so it appears to have many. It can live to be over 1000 years old and botanists think some individual specimens may be up to 2000 years old. And these plants are dioecious which means there are true male and female plants - I'm not sure about these two, though.
Friends looked at my photo and marveled at the plant’s strangeness – as do I. One said, “They look like struggling octopi in extreme danger and struggling to find water, eyes closed but not yet defeated.” Another said, “It looks so much like an animal, I've had to look at it several times and I'm still not quite convinced it's a plant :)”.
Uploaded
November 23rd, 2018
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