welwitschia

2 definitions found

welwitschia - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Welwitschia \Wel*witsch"i*a\, n. [NL. So named after the
     discoverer, Dr. Friedrich Welwitsch.] (Bot.)
     An African plant (Welwitschia mirabilis) belonging to the
     order Gnetaceae. It consists of a short, woody, topshaped
     stem, and never more than two leaves, which are the
     cotyledons enormously developed, and at length split into
     diverging segments.
     [1913 Webster]

welwitschia - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  welwitschia
      n 1: curious plant of arid regions of southwestern Africa having
           a yard-high and yard-wide trunk like a turnip with a deep
           taproot and two large persistent woody straplike leaves
           growing from the base; living relic of a flora long
           disappeared; some may be 700-5000 years old [syn:
           welwitschia, Welwitschia mirabilis]