The Plant That Lost Its Head

Welwitschia is a plant native to the Namib desert. It tolerates extreme heat and very low precipitation.

After germination it produces two permanent leaves from a woody crown. A woody crown with no ambition.

This plant never grows a third leaf.

Those two ribbon-shaped leaves grow continuously across the entire circumference of the crown. Long game.

Some individuals are perhaps as much as 2,000 years old. Radiocarbon dating determines their age. Radiocarbon dating takes longer than the plant.

Both male and female plants produce cones that make nectar. Flies carry the oval-shaped pollen between them.

In July 2021 its genome was reported as 98% sequenced across 21 chromosomes. It contains much repetitive DNA.

The Herero name translates to onion of the desert. Indigenous people occasionally eat the cone raw. The cone needs a vinaigrette.