When you fly over Namibia there is hardly any sign of the botanical wealth below. But in fact, botanists have identified more than three thousand plants, and about one-tenth of them are water-storing varieties. The greatest of all is undoubtedly the Welwitshia Mirabilis.

This is one of the largest and strangest plants known to science. It is possibly the plant with the longest life. Carbon - 14 tests have shown that some plants are 750 years old and can become far over 1 000 years

Most desert growths are small. Welwitshia is more like a tree, which has been driven underground, to avoid sandstorms and the heat. The taproot is a trunk, which goes down 18 metres or more to draw water from old riverbeds, under the sand. It can attain a circumference of 4 metres.

Welwitshia has been called the "desert octopus" because of its huge heap of long leaves. It exudes a thick, sugary resin, without intending to trap victims. It is in fact a submerged relative of the pines.

Welwitshia survive and seem to thrive in these dry parts where rainfall is never more than 25 mm a year and where rainless years are no exception. The plant has only two leaves springing from the outside of its core. These may be 3 metres long. The leaves catch the sea mists that spread over the desert coast. Both leaves grow though out the plant's life and are never shed.

The Welwitshia only has two leaves, but they are so shredded by the wind that they appear to be far more. The Hottentots have their own name for the Welwitshia; they call it "Gories" - the longhaired thing. Unfortunately, they discovered long ago that the leaves possess medicinal properties.

So as far back as 1916 already, the Welwitshia had to be protected. Anyone who injures, uproots or destroys a Welwitshia, without a permit, may have to pay a hefty fine, or spend some time in prison.

By coincidence, two explorers, unknown to each other, reported the discovery of this unique plant to the director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at more or less the same time. They were Dr. Welwitsch in 1860 from Angola and Thomas Baines from South West Africa (Namibia). Initially, the Angolan specimens were named, "Welwitshia Mirabilis" and the South West African, "Welwitshia bainesii".

The Kokerboom is another plant which is also testimony to the tenacity and adaptability of the Namib Desert plants. The male plants have brilliant orange flowers and the female plants have light red cones, speckled with green. It is wind-pollinated. The sweet fluid that the plant produces attracts an insect that may also be responsible for pollination.