Physicist and astronomer Stefan Feeney of University College London, one of the...
Velvichia amazing (Welwitschia mirabilis).
This name was given to her by the English botanist Joseph Hooker: generic - in honor of Friedrich Velvich, an Austrian traveler and botanist who discovered this plant in the south of Angola in 1860, and species - 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 aerial part rarely exceeds half a meter in height. From top to bottom, the trunk narrows cone-shaped and smoothly passes into a tap root 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 the adult state, 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 rate of 8-15 cm per year and reach a length of up to 3 meters. But that's usually. The literature describes simply giant specimens with leaves up to 6 meters and a width of 1.8 meters!
The velvichia leaf can be divided into three parts. At its base, the processes of cell divisions and the actual growth in length take place, the middle part is responsible for photosynthesis, and the ends of the leaves gradually die off, dry out and break into thin strips, creating a feeling of untidy shaggyness. The leaves are very hard to the touch and look more like boards than living plant organs. Their color is brown-green. In the internal structure there are mucus passages, like those of 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 the origin of velvichia should be sought in the mists of time.
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 - in length. Therefore, Velvichia can be called an “adult teenager”.
Close-up of the top of the female plant with inflorescences, the structure remains the same age. But the life span of our heroine is extremely long!
Velvichia grows in the barren deserts of Angola and southwestern tropical Africa, in the rocky Namib Desert, which stretches along the coast 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 characterized by extreme aridity and sultryness. For months, not a drop of rain falls here, and at the same time, Velvichia quietly grows on open places and it feels pretty good. Where does she get the moisture she needs?
Previously, it was believed that its rather long root can reach ground water, but later it turned out that this was not the case. Almost the only source of moisture in this desert is the dense 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 the Welwitschia and water is absorbed through the stomata. Therefore, it is not surprising that velvichia leaves have an exceptionally large number of stomata - 22,000 stomata per 1 cm 2!
Velvichia is sometimes grown in greenhouses, however, 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, like many extraordinary personalities, it is quite capricious and sensitive to even minor changes in the regime.
At home, Velvichia is especially protected and enjoys a well-deserved honor. 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 master". And, it should be noted - absolutely right!
Botanical name: Welwitschia.
Family. Velvichiaceae.
Where does velvichia grow. Velvichia in vivo grows in Angola and Namibia, in Africa, in the desert.
Description of what it looks like. Velvichia is a dioecious perennial amazing gymnosperm plant with a short stem, taproot and two leaves. The leaves are leathery, wide, belt-like, 2 meters long, lie on the ground, grow continuously throughout the life of the plant and wear out and become untidy with age. The stem is low, reverse - conical, thick, woody, unbranched. They are divided into male and female plants. Reproductive branched organs appear at the base of the leaves, in female plants - cones of blue-green color, larger than male ones. Male cones are salmon-colored, small, oblong-cone-shaped. Grows very slowly.
Height. The velvichia plant grows up to 50 cm.
Velvichia - home care
Temperature conditions. Normal will do room temperature throughout the year. In extreme heat, the leaves of plants curl up and thereby reduce the evaporation of moisture from the surface.
Lighting. Brightly lit place. Plants are very sensitive to sudden changes in light intensity. Never move the plant from shade to direct sun - the leaves will burn and the plant may never recover and die. Care. Welwitschia are fairly easy to grow as potted plants. substrate. Loose, well-drained, with a high content of coarse sand. top dressing. Velvichia is responsive to top dressing - it grows faster. During the growing season, feed every 2-3 months. Purpose. flowering time. From mid-summer to autumn. Air humidity. Sprayed in the warm season. soil moisture. This plant should be watered regularly during the summer months, reduce watering to once a month during the winter. Transfer. The plant has a very sensitive root system and does not like to be disturbed, so only repot velvichia when necessary. reproduction. Seeds are sown in the warm season, in spring or summer, in a large and deep (at least 30 cm, preferably larger) pot. Remember to place a layer of gravel on the bottom to ensure good drainage. The soil should be sandy and well drained, eg 2 parts sand: 1 part loam: 1 part compost (leaf rot) with enough bone meal. Thoroughly moisten the soil before sowing seeds. Keep seedlings in a warm and sunny place, maintain uniform humidity.
The vast majority of desert plants are characterized by their small size, absence of leaves, and, in general, involvement in the succulent family. But as you know, there is an exception to every rule. This exception is .
Velvichia completely unlike the usual desert plants, moreover, it is not like any other plant in the world. Velvichia amazing has only 2 leaves that grow in opposite sides from a rosette raised above the ground by 30 - 50 cm. The lack of leaves is more than compensated for by their size: up to 8 meters in length and up to 2 meters in width. Two leaves of velvichia grow all his life, their number never increases.
It is easy to see in the photographs that the leaves of the plant are clearly more than two, but this is just a cunning adaptation of velvichia. Trying to shade as much of the ground around the roots as possible, the plant begins to gall (separate) the leaves into narrow ribbon-like pieces up to 1.5 meters long. Over time, the tapes dry out and die off, 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 grows amazing in the western part of the desert Namib in Angola and Namibia. Namib is one of the harshest deserts in the world, no more than 15 mm of precipitation falls here 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 Velvich suggested that it takes water from underground groundwater. But as it turned out later, the groundwater here is so deep that only camel thorns can reach them, the roots of which go 40 meters down. In Velvichia, the roots are relatively short - 2-3 meters, no more. The secret of velvichia was found in its special leaves. The entire surface of the leaves, hard as a tree, is densely dotted with stomata, capable of incredibly efficiently collecting moisture from the morning and evening coming from the Atlantic Ocean mists. The amount of moisture collected from fogs is equivalent to 50 mm of rain daily. This ability was investigated only in the middle of the 20th century, before that no one could have imagined that such tough, practically wooden leaves are capable of something similar.
Velvichia is amazing - it's real dinosaur plant, on Earth it appeared long before the appearance of man and even before mammals. In addition, it can also boast of a very long life - about 1200-1300 years, and the oldest individual has recently turned 1500 years old.
The largest known specimen of Velvichia, 1.4 m high and over 4 m in diameter, over 1500 years old
A common misconception is that velvichia is often mistaken for herbaceous plant is actually a tree. The trunk, although not high - up to 80 cm in height, about half of which are underground, but can reach 120 cm in diameter. It is covered with 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.
That's it unique plant this velvichia. Thanks to an incredible urge to live, it has 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.
One of these plants is Velvichia amazing, an extremely pronounced representative of xerophytes. The name is amazing, like the title of the queen of the desert, Velvichia deserves, if only because it does not look like any of all the known plants in the world. She is one of a kind. The Velvichia order includes only one family, one genus, one species - this, in fact, is the amazing Velvichia.
Its life form cannot be called either a grass, or a bush, or a tree, although in the botanical classification it is designated as a relict tree. You can only see how Velvichia grows 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 it has been cultivated.
Scientific world I learned about Velvichia not so long ago, only in the 19th century. And the Austrian professor of botany Friedrich Velvich found her. 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 resembling 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 sheet - it turned out to be more than 2 m. Frequent strong winds the leaves were torn into many thin ribbons that were tangled and intertwined, resembling the tentacles of an octopus. Subsequently, this discovery of botany was called the discovery of the century.
From afar, it seems that Velvichia has many long leaves, but in fact there are only two of them, and they grow throughout its plant life, adding 8-15 cm per year. V scientific papers a giant was described with a leaf length of more than 6 m and a width of about 2 m. And its life expectancy is so long that it is hard to believe. Although Velvichia is considered a tree, it does not have annual rings, as on tree trunks. Scientists determined the age of individual, largest, Velvichi by radiocarbon dating - it turned out that some specimens are about 2000 years old!
Most of wide trunk Velvichia is underground, it protrudes only 30-50 cm above the surface. Moreover, the trunk tapers to the bottom and turns into a thick taproot, sometimes reaching three meters in length. It turns out that this dwarf tree grows down! After all, ordinary trees the thinnest part of the trunk is the tip.
How does this plant survive in the most arid desert? In some places, the Namib receives no more than 25 mm of precipitation per year. At first, scientists had a version that the root of the plant reaches groundwater, but it turned out to be false. This is where another amazing feature of Velvichia leaves was discovered - the ability to absorb moisture.
On 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” with the arrival of dense fog on the coast. Moisture, condensing on the leaves, is absorbed by these same stomata. Condensation provides Velvichia right amount moisture equivalent to 50 mm of precipitation. Fogs in this area of Africa are a common thing - they envelop the coast for almost 300 days a year. Winds blowing from the Atlantic Ocean drive the fog deep into the mainland for 80-100 km. Therefore, in those places where the fog does not reach, Velvichia is not found, because. she will simply die there.
Velvichia is amazing - a proud young lady. Instead of a social plant life, she prefers a solitary existence, i.e. She doesn't grow as a group. Velvichia flowers look like small cones, and in each female cone (dioecious plant) there is only one seed, and each seed is equipped with wide wings. As for pollination, the opinions of botanists differ here. Some believe that pollination is carried out by insects, while others are more inclined to the action of the wind.
Velvichia is protected by the Namibian Conservation Act. The collection of its seeds is prohibited without special permission. The entire territory where Velvichia grows has been turned into national park Namib-Naukluft. Of course, such a miracle of nature needs protection. Go hard natural conditions she adapted, but to the rapacity of man ...
Velvichia is amazing - a unique plant, a real "child of the desert". It is the only kind of Velvichi order of the Gnetov class. The size of the plant and its longevity are striking.
Velvichia grows in the deserts of Angola and Namibia. The territory of their distribution is limited - no further than 100 kilometers from the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. And there are reasons for this. The desert dictates its own rules of existence and few manage to survive here. But this plant has found a way out - these are fogs. Plants get the moisture they need through thick fogs, which almost daily envelop the entire southwestern coast of Africa no further 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 sq. km. cm.
This plant was first discovered in 1860 by the Austrian botanist Friedrich Velwich, after whom it was named. The Bushmen tribes gave him their name - "big master". Indeed, Velvichia fully justifies 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 diameter of the trunk can reach 1 meter. Most of it is hidden underground.
Velvichia is famous for its unique leaves. Initially, only 2 true leaves grow from the cotyledon. 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, so 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 eventually die off and are split by the wind into small strips. Their surface feels like wood to the touch, just as hard and ribbed. Velvichia leaves are considered the most durable.
Velvichia amazing has female and male plants. During the flowering period, branches with small bumps grow from the center of the disk. The female cones have seeds under the scales. Pollination and seed dispersal occurs with the help of wind.
These plants are real long-livers. The true lifespan of the plant has not been precisely determined. But the age of some of them was determined by the radiocarbon method and amounted to about 2000 years.
The number of plants in the world is small, so they fall under the Washington Convention for the Protection of Species (CITES) and are protected by the Namibian nature conservation law.
The amazing Velvichia is grown as an indoor or greenhouse plant, but its breeding is not an easy task.
