welwitschia
part of speech
noun (a welwitschia, welwitschias)
meaning for a pupil
1) A very strange desert plant from Namibia and Angola in south-west Africa that has only two long, leathery leaves. tree →
2) The leaves keep growing from the base for its whole life, getting torn and curled into a messy heap. tree →
3) Some welwitschias are thought to be well over a thousand years old. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons it is an example of how plants adapt to deserts: it gets water from fog and has deep roots. In nature books it is called a «living fossil» because it is very old and unusual. It appears on the coat of arms of Namibia.
examples
- The welwitschia has only two leaves, but they never stop growing. tree →
- Our teacher showed us a picture of a welwitschia in the Namib Desert. tree →
- The welwitschia drinks water from the morning fog. tree →
- Some welwitschias may be over a thousand years old. tree →
- The leaves of the welwitschia look like a tangled pile of ribbons. tree →
- Kew Gardens in London grows a welwitschia in a glasshouse. tree →
note
Say «wel-WITCH-ee-uh». It is named after Friedrich Welwitsch, the botanist who described it. Myth: it looks like many leaves, but it really has just two that split into strips. Plural: welwitschias.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «welwitschia» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.