Welwitschia mirabilis

The most wondrous plant I know, named after its discoverer: Friedrich Welwitsch. The plant only has 2 large, broad leaves and can withstand enormous drought and heat. The wind splits the leaves, but there are still really only 2! The roots of the plant go very deep, reaching deep underground water sources, and the leaves carefully absorb all condensation and scarce rain. The plants in nature are very rare, they become very old and unfortunately used to be widely poached. Fortunately, gigantic specimens up to 2000 years old are still known, on average they live to be 500-600 years old! No wonder every botanical garden would love to have such a unique plant... In Afrikaans, the plant is aptly named: "Tweeblaarkanniedood" (Two-leaf-cannot-die). What more do I need to tell about this botanical marvel: it is a gymnosperm, just like many conifers and like the well-known sago palm: Cycas. Although the plant does not grow taller than 1.8 m, the leaves can grow up to 6 m in length each! The drier the environment, the larger the plant. You need a male and a female plant for seed formation and a rare red bug for fertilization. Each year we can therefore only obtain a few hundred seeds, which we carefully distribute among our customers; per order you can only order 1 packet of 5 seeds.

Names:
Latin: Welwitschia mirabilis
Dutch: Tweeblaarkanniedood
Also: Tweeblaarkanniedood
English: Welwitschia