Which plant from the Namib Desert can live for more than a millennium?

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“Welwitschia mirabilis” is an extraordinary plant from the Namib Desert, Angola and Namibia. It produces only two evergreen leaves which gradually lengthen and tear throughout its life. Some individuals are over a thousand years old and survive thanks to adapted roots as well as the humidity available in this extremely arid environment. Welwitschia is not a flower: it is a gymnosperm, a group of seed plants that produce cones rather than flowers and fruits. This evolutionary particularity makes it an important object of study for botanists.