Plantae > Tracheophyta > Gnetopsida > Welwitschiales > Welwitschiaceae > Welwitschia > Welwitschia mirabilis

Welwitschia mirabilis (Welwitschia)

Synonyms: Tumboa bainesii; Welwitschia bainesii; Welwitschia mirabilis mirabilis; Welwitschia mirabilis namibiana; Welwitschia namibiana

Wikipedia Abstract

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.
View Wikipedia Record: Welwitschia mirabilis

Attributes

Structure [1]  Tree

Ecosystems

Emblem of

Namibia

Predators

Paracoccus mutabilis (mealybug)[2]
Pseudococcus calceolariae (citrophilus mealybug)[2]
Vryburgia rimariae[2]

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
2Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0