Welwitschia: One Of The Oldest Living Plants In The World

this utterly unique plant may look dead but some individuals have been alive since before the foundation of sparta this is sparta while this octopus-like pile of dried out leaves may not be the world's prettiest plant it's certainly one of the most peculiar this is well wichia [Music] [Music] hey i'm tasha the amazon and you're watching floralogic today we're talking about one of the oldest plants in the world this one looks like it's definitely seen some things it's not easy on the eyes but that's okay because today we're going to be looking at the inner beauty of the well witchia while witchia mirabilis is endemic to the arid and semi-arid regions of western namibia and angola it's the only species in its genus while which aca the english name for this ancient plant comes from the first european to describe it back in 1859 austrian botanist friedrich welwich but it's more commonly known as tree tumbo carbon dating has revealed that some specimens of well witchia are upwards of 3000 years old to give some context that's 1 000 years before the ancient city of petra in jordan was built and around the time the first colossal stoneheads were carved by the ancient olmec civilization in what is today mexico they were sprouting just at the beginning of the zhu dynasty the longest running dynasty in chinese history which lasted 790 years these plants were already 300 years old when homer's odyssey was written i told you these guys have seen some things while wichi range in diameter from 60 to 120 centimeters but only grow upwards about 30 centimeters off the ground their claim to fame is that they've got the longest living leaves of any in the plant kingdom these leaves grow continuously throughout their lives in two ultra long leathery bands that's right that cluster of leaves that make up the well wichia are just two individual leaves at their rate of growth a single leaf can grow 150 meters in a thousand years the fresh green part of the leaf stays about three meters long as it grows the ends wither slowly leaving a long trailing section of dead leaf still attached the desert winds whipped the leaves causing them to split into ribbons making this plant look like a dried-up desert octopus these octo-like leaves grow from the large woody stem which is mostly subterranean while wichia is a freedom fight meaning it has very deep roots that allow it to access moisture deep below the surface the tap roots of the well witchia are said to look like giant radishes while will wichia can live for an obscene amount of time it can be a challenge for them to reproduce and seeing a juvenile willow flopping around in the wind is rare for a couple of reasons first a fungus commonly infects the seeds which affects their viability it spreads through its namesake the welwitchia bug a local species known to swarm the plant for its nectar the bug spreads fungus but it's also thought to be one of the plant's main pollinators the second reason is that seedlings need more than 55 millimeters of rain to germinate which doesn't happen very often in the namib desert where it only averages 40 millimeters of rainfall a year as a result groups of well wichia that sprouted from the same germination event over the millennia can be found clustered together while wichia don't live more than about a hundred kilometers from the coast in what is known as a fog belt the fog is created when the hot namib desert air meets the cold current from the atlantic ocean the condensation from the fog collects on the leaves which are the perfect shape to direct the moisture down to the roots during times of drought zebras and other animals will chew on the plant for moisture luckily the weird and wonderful well wishia isn't bothered at all it just keeps on growing however has managed to survive in the desert is still up for debate since it appears to be hardly thriving in its bone-dry home in both numbers and appearance some evidence suggests that this plant wasn't always a desert dweller one study hypothesizes that proto-well which existed as far back as the cretaceous period 66 million years ago grew in zones with much more well-balanced moisture this was long before the tectonic plates drastically changed the landscape of today's africa and even before an asteroid killed all the dinosaurs evolving in a wetter environment would explain why they need such high levels of moisture to germinate and why they look so lush when grown in greenhouse conditions and so dead looking where they live now but despite all odds and across thousands of years this survivor is still holding it down and still captivating us with its tenacity there's some kind of deep meaningful life lesson hiding in that heap of brown dead leaves don't you think so what should we talk about next let me know in the comments and don't forget to subscribe for new episodes every week ciao [Music] these plants were already 300 years old when homer's odyssey was written i told you these guys have seen some things can we list some of the things they've seen they have seen butts they have seen other well witchia they have seen dust and sand and a little bit of rain they like chicken mcnuggets but they didn't get those until like they were like two thousand seven hundred years old and those are some things that they have seen hey it's thousands of the amazon we're going to talk about our ugly plant here we go i love ugly plants and i'm here to say i do bloody plant dance every day don't put that on the internet

Channel: Animalogic

Views: 1,138,007

Keywords: animals, animal, logic, education, animalogic, crazy, ugly, weird, gross, beautiful, interesting, facts, about, information, info, school, research, learn, learning, smart, 4k, nature documentary, nature doc, floralogic, second nature, Welwitschia, old, oldest plant, desert, namib desert, rare, ancient, oldest plant in the world, old plant, 3000 year old plant, ancient plant, ancient plants

Id: CcsMY2schVI

Length: 6min 3sec (363 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 04 2022