What is "welwitschia"

Welwitschia \Wel*witsch"i*a\, n. [NL. So named after the discoverer, Dr. Friedrich Welwitsch.] (Bot.) An African plant ( Welwitschia mirabilis) belonging to the order Gnetace[ae]. It consists of a short, woody, topshaped stem, and never more than two leaves, which are the cotyledons enormously developed, and at length split into diverging segments.

n. The sole plant in the genus (taxlink Welwitschia genus noshow=1).

n. 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 old [syn: Welwitschia mirabilis]

Welwitschia is a monotypic gymnosperm genus, comprising solely the distinctive Welwitschia mirabilis. The plant is commonly known simply as welwitschia in English, but the name tree tumbo is also used. It is called kharos or khurub in Nama, tweeblaarkanniedood in Afrikaans, nyanka in Damara, and onyanga in Herero. Welwitschia is the only living genus of the family Welwitschiaceae and order Welwitschiales, in the division Gnetophyta. Informal sources commonly refer to the plant as a " living fossil". Welwitschia mirabilis is endemic to the Namib desert within Namibia and Angola.