Velvichia is an amazing continent. Velvichia amazing - “adult child” among plants

One of these plants is Velvichia amazing, an extremely pronounced representative of xerophytes. Velvichia deserves an amazing name, as well as the title of queen of the desert, if only because it is unlike any other known plant in the world. She is one of a kind. The Velvichiaceae order includes only one family, one genus, one species - this, in fact, is Velvichia amazing.
Its life form cannot be called either grass, bush, or tree, although botanical classification it is designated as a relict tree. You can see how Velvichia grows only by going to the south of Angola or to Namibia, the rocky Namib Desert, which stretches in a narrow strip along the coast of West Africa. But if you are lucky, you can meet her in some greenhouse, because... Recently they began to cultivate it.

Scientific world I learned about Velvichia not so long ago, only in the 19th century. And it was found by the Austrian professor of botany Friedrich Welwitsch. In the process of studying the Angolan flora, he came across unusual plant. Having seen various representatives of the flora in his life, it seemed to the professor that such a thing was impossible to come up with.
He saw something similar to a stump or a lignified oval-shaped stump with a diameter of more than a meter, from which two huge brown-green leaves emanated in both directions. Velvich carefully unfolded and measured one leaf - it turned out to be more than 2 m. Frequent strong winds tore the leaves into many thin ribbons, which were tangled and intertwined, reminiscent of the tentacles of an octopus. Subsequently, botanists called this discovery the discovery of the century.

From a distance it seems that Velvichia has a lot long leaves, but in fact there are only two of them, and they grow throughout its entire plant life, adding 8-15 cm per year. IN scientific works a giant was described with leaves more than 6 m long and about 2 m wide. And its life expectancy is so long that it’s hard to believe. Although Velvichia is considered a tree, it does not have annual rings, like those on tree trunks. Scientists determined the age of individual, largest Velvichia using the radiocarbon method - it turned out that some specimens are about 2000 years old!
Most of the wide trunk of Velvichia is underground; it protrudes only 30-50 cm above the surface. Moreover, the trunk narrows towards the bottom and turns into a thick tap root, sometimes reaching three meters in length. It turns out that this dwarf tree grows downward! After all, in ordinary trees, the thinnest part of the trunk is the top.

How does this plant survive in the driest desert conditions? Some places in the Namib receive no more than 25 mm of rain per year. At first, scientists had a theory that the plant’s root reached groundwater, but it turned out to be false. This is where another amazing feature of Velvichia leaves was revealed - the ability to absorb moisture.
Over the entire area of ​​the leaves, with the exception of the dried tips, there is an incredible number of stomata (22,000 per 1 cm²), which “open” when thick fog arrives on the coast. Moisture, condensing on the leaves, is absorbed by these very stomata. Condensation provides Velvichia with the required amount of moisture equivalent to 50 mm of precipitation. Fogs are common in this area of ​​Africa - they cover the coast almost 300 days a year. Winds blowing from the Atlantic Ocean drive the fog 80-100 km inland. Therefore, in those places where the fog does not reach, Velvichia does not occur, because there she will simply die.
Velvichia is amazing - a proud young lady. Instead of social plant life, she prefers a solitary existence, i.e. it does not grow as a group. Velvichia's flowers look like small cones, and each female cone (the plant is dioecious) contains only one seed, and each seed is equipped with wide wings. As for pollination, botanists have differing opinions. Some believe that pollination is carried out by insects, while others are more inclined to the action of wind
Welwitschia is protected by the Namibian Nature Conservation Act. Collecting its seeds is prohibited without special permission. The entire territory where Velvichia grows was turned into National Park Namib-Naukluft. Of course, such a miracle of nature needs protection. To the tough natural conditions she has adapted, but to human rapacity...

Welwitschia is amazing (Welwitschia mirabilis).

This name was assigned to it by the English botanist Joseph Hooker: the generic name - in honor of Friedrich Welwitsch, the Austrian traveler and botanist, who discovered this plant in the south of Angola in 1860, and the specific name - apparently in memory of the feelings that this plant evoked, because everything in it unusual.

The trunk of Velvichia looks like a stump or stump, low and thick, almost completely hidden in the ground. Its above-ground part rarely exceeds half a meter in height. From bottom to bottom, the trunk tapers conically and smoothly turns into a taproot up to 3 meters long. In the upper part the trunk is more or less saddle-bilobed, covered with a dense layer of cork up to 2 cm thick.

In adulthood, Velvichia has two (and only two!) leaves, which is its unique feature. At the same time, the leaves are able to grow indefinitely at a speed of 8-15 cm per year and reach a length of up to 3 meters. But that's usual. The literature describes simply gigantic specimens with leaves up to 6 meters and a width of 1.8 meters!

The Welwitschia leaf can be divided into three parts. At its base there are processes of cell division and actual growth in length, the middle part is responsible for photosynthesis, and the ends of the leaves gradually die off, dry out and tear into thin strips, creating a feeling of unkempt shaggyness. The leaves are very hard to the touch and look more like boards than living plant organs. Their color is brown-green. In internal structure there are mucus passages, like the cycads (Cycadaceae), a very ancient group of gymnosperms. And the stomata are exactly like those of the Bennettitaceae, not only an even more ancient, but also a completely extinct group of plants. These facts clearly indicate that the origins of Velvichia should be sought in the depths of centuries.

The described pair of leaves appears immediately behind the cotyledons, which subsequently fall off. And then the development of the plant stops! The trunk grows only in breadth, and the leaves grow in length. Therefore, Velvichia can easily be called an “adult teenager.”

Close-up of the top of a female plant with inflorescences and the structure remains at the same age. But the lifespan of our heroine is extremely long!

Welwitschia grows in the barren deserts of Angola and southwestern tropical Africa, in the rocky Namib Desert, which stretches along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It is almost never found further than a hundred kilometers from the coast, and this is due to its unique specificity. The fact is that the Namib Desert is extremely arid and hot. Not a drop of rain falls here for months, and yet Velvichia quietly grows on open places and feels quite good there. Where does she get the moisture she needs?

Previously it was believed that its rather long root could reach groundwater, but it later turned out that this was not the case. Almost the only source of moisture in this desert is the thick fog that shrouds the coast in the morning for 300 days a year, and ocean breezes drive its life-giving drops far inland. The mist condenses on the huge leaves of Welwitschia and water is absorbed through the stomata. Therefore, it is not surprising that Welwitschia leaves have exceptional a large number stomata - 22,000 stomata per 1 cm2!

Velvichia is sometimes grown in greenhouses, although not because of its decorative qualities, but because of its absolute exclusivity. By the way, its cultivation requires great skill and patience on the part of gardeners, since it, like many extraordinary personalities, is quite capricious and sensitive to even minor changes in the regime.

In its homeland, Velvichia is especially protected and enjoys well-deserved respect. She was even honored to be placed on the coat of arms of Namibia, as a symbol of national fortitude. And the Bushmen tribes call it “otji tumbo”, which means “big lord”. And, it should be noted - absolutely fair!

The vast majority of desert plants are characterized by small size, lack of leaves and, mainly, belonging to the succulent family. But as you know, every rule has its exception. This exception is.

Velvichia completely different from the usual ones desert plants Moreover, it is unlike any other plant in the world. Velvichia amazing has only 2 leaves, which grow in opposite directions from a rosette raised above the ground by 30 - 50 cm. The lack of leaves is more than compensated by their size: up to 8 meters in length and up to 2 meters in width. Velvichia grows two leaves all its life, their number never increases.

In the photographs it is easy to notice that the plant clearly has more than two leaves, but this is only a cunning adaptation of Welwitschia. Trying to shade as large an area of ​​the earth around the roots as possible, the plant begins to zhelevat (divide) the leaves into narrow ribbon-like pieces up to 1.5 meters long. Over time, the tapes dry out and die, but at the same time they fully cope with the task assigned to them - they create a shadow and do not waste precious moisture.

in fact, the plant has only two leaves, divided into ribbon-like pieces

Velvichia amazing grows in the western part of the desert Namib in Angola and Namibia. The Namib is one of the harshest deserts in the world; precipitation here is no more than 15 mm per year, with all 15 mm falling in 2 months; the remaining 10 months of the year in the coastal part of the Namib are dry as hell. How then does a plant with such large leaves as Velvichia manage to survive? How and where does it get the water it needs to live? The discoverer of this plant is a botanist Friedrich Welwich suggested that it takes water from underground groundwater. But as it turned out later groundwater they are so deep here that only camel thorns, whose roots go 40 meters down, can reach them. Velvichia has relatively short roots - 2-3 meters, no more. The secret of Velvichia was found in its special leaves. The entire surface of leaves as hard as a tree is densely strewn stomata, capable of incredibly efficiently collecting moisture from the morning and evening air coming from the Atlantic Ocean fogs. The amount of moisture collected from fogs is equivalent to 50 mm of rain falling daily. This ability was studied only in the middle of the 20th century; before that, no one could have imagined that such hard, almost wooden leaves were capable of something like that.

Velvichia is amazing - it's real dinosaur plant, it appeared on Earth long before the appearance of humans and even before mammals. In addition, it can also boast of a very long life - about 1200-1300 years, and the oldest individual recently turned 1500 years old.

The largest known specimen of Velvichia with a height of 1.4 m and a diameter of more than 4 m, age - more than 1500 years

A common misconception is that Welwitschia is often mistaken for a herbaceous plant, but in reality it is a tree. The trunk, although not high - up to 80 cm in height, about half of which is underground, but can reach 120 cm in diameter. It is covered with a strong and dense bark 2 cm thick. The rosette and, accordingly, the top of the trunk can be wider than 1.5 meters in diameter.

Here it is unique plant this Velvichia. Thanks to an incredible thirst for life, it found a way to survive in one of the harshest places on our planet. It is unlike any other plant. It is truly amazing in every way.

perennial evergreen plant with a short, no more than 50 cm, wide trunk, similar to a stump. With age, the diameter of the trunk can reach 1.5 m. The root is thick, taproot, grows vertically down to a depth of 1.5 - 3 m, it mainly acts as an anchor, holding the plant in the sand in strong winds. On the surface there are often several thread-like roots that absorb moisture from the soil surface. For the whole long life plant, and this is several hundred years old, it develops only 2 true opposite leathery leaves. The first 2 cotyledon leaves fall off only after 1.5 - 2 years. True leaves grow very slowly, lengthening by only 8 - 15 cm per year, depending on environmental conditions, and reaching a length of several meters (plants with leaf lengths of more than 8 m have been found). Under influence strong winds adult leaves are torn lengthwise into long strips, their ends dry out. Seedlings bloom at the age of 3-5 years. Flowers are collected in cone-shaped inflorescences. Male inflorescences are elongated, salmon-colored, female inflorescences are wider, cone-shaped, blue-green. The plant is dioecious - male and female inflorescences are located on different plants.

Family:

Welwitschiaceae

Origin:

South West Africa (Namibia)

Number of seeds:

Velvichia is called the paradox of the desert. It is found only on a narrow coastal strip of the hottest and most sultry Namib Desert, extending into the interior of the mainland no further than 100 km. And nowhere else in the world. Moreover, it never grows in groups, all plants are located at a decent distance from each other, and this despite the fact that the plant is dioecious and reproduces only by seeds. It's amazing that it has survived to this day. In addition, its leaves are quite edible; they are eaten not only by animals, but also by the local population, calling it “desert onion”. The way Velvichia feeds is also paradoxical: it receives moisture not thanks to its long root, but exclusively thanks to the numerous stomata on both sides of the leaves. Welwitschia has more of these stomata than any other plant in the world.

Location:

sunny

Watering:

in nature, the plant receives moisture from coastal fogs, absorbing it through numerous stomata located on both surfaces of the leaf. Therefore, regular spraying is necessary. The soil should also be kept slightly moist at all times. Between watering the soil

Fertilizer:

feed occasionally complex fertilizers for succulents.

Earth:

the soil is breathable, containing a large proportion of coarse sand, fine gravel (1 mm), coarse perlite or basalt chips.

Reproduction:

only seeds. Before sowing, treat the seeds with a fungicide, as they are prone to fungal diseases. Plant in a slightly moistened soilless mixture of sand, perlite, vermiculite at a shallow depth (2 - 3 mm). The temperature should be around 25-28°C. A slight decrease in night temperature by 5-8°C will speed up germination. Seeds need to be inspected daily, monitor soil moisture (do not over-moisten!), and spray with a fungicide solution. First, the root sprouts, and after some time the cotyledons appear

Velvichia is amazing - a unique plant, a real “child of the desert”. It is the only type of the Velvichiev order of the Gnetov class. The size of the plant and its longevity are amazing.

Velvichia grows in the deserts of Angola and Namibia. Their distribution area is limited - no further than 100 kilometers from the Atlantic coast. And there are reasons for this. The desert dictates its own rules of existence and few manage to survive here. But this plant found a way out - these are fogs. Plants receive the moisture they need through thick fogs, which almost daily envelop the entire southwestern coast of Africa for no more than 100 kilometers. Water, which is concentrated on the surface of the leaves, is absorbed through stomata, of which there are about 22 thousand per 1 square meter. cm.

This plant was first discovered in 1860 by the Austrian botanist Friedrich Welwitsch, after whom it was named. The Bushmen tribes gave it their name - “big master”. Indeed, Velvichia fully lives up to this name.

The size of the plant is amazing. Its root can grow up to 3 meters. The cone-shaped trunk, on the contrary, is very short and does not rise above the surface by more than 25-30 centimeters. The trunk diameter can reach 1 meter. Most of it is hidden underground.

Velvichia became famous for its unique leaves. Initially, only 2 true leaves grow from the cotyledons. After the cotyledons fall off, the leaves continue to grow throughout the life of the plant. Their length reaches 2-4 meters. But there are also giant specimens; the length of the leaves of one plant was 6.2 meters with a width of 1.8 meters. They grow quickly - from 8 to 15 centimeters per year.

The ends of the leaves die over time and are split into small strips by the wind. Their surface feels like wood, just as hard and ribbed. Welwitschia leaves are considered the most durable.

Welwitschia amazing has female and male plants. During the flowering period, branches with small cones grow from the center of the disk. Female cones have seeds under the scales. Pollination and seed distribution occurs with the help of wind.

These plants are real long-livers. The true lifespan of the plant is not precisely determined. But the age of some of them was determined by radiocarbon dating and was about 2000 years.

The number of plants in the world is small, so they fall under the Washington Treaty on the Protection of Species (CITES) and are protected by the Namibian Nature Conservation Act.

Welwitschia amazing is grown as a houseplant or greenhouse plant, but its cultivation is not an easy task.