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Cactuswiki open cactus and succulent encyclopedia.

Cactuswiki encyclopaedia

The world of cacti and other succulents

Species, genera and families of cacti and succulent plants, each with its description, synonyms, classification and photographs from cultivation and habitat.

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Plant of the month · November 2026

© Guillermo Rivera · CC-BY-SA · source

Welwitschia mirabilis Hook.f.

Family Welwitschiaceae
Genus Welwitschia

Welwitschia mirabilis is a very curious relict gymnosperm with only a single pair of extremely wide, persistent adult leaves. Its barrel-shaped woody stem or crown (caudex) in the center is deeply imbedded in the ground and rooted by a very long tap root. During all its long life-cycle the hypocotyl continues to enlarge forming a short “trunk”, for this reason it is said it is a persistent seedling.

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Cactuswiki is an open encyclopaedia of cacti, succulents and caudiciforms, a personal non-profit project. Its profiles can be browsed and searched by species, genus or family. A Spanish version is in progress.

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CC BY-SA Many of the sheets and photographs come from llifle.com — Encyclopedia of Living Forms and are published under the CC BY-SA licence, crediting their authors and photographers on every sheet. Cactuswiki content is under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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