Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1884 — A Curious African Plant. [ARTICLE]

A Curious African Plant.

Now that there is such a desire to acquire plants which contrast strangely with the ordinary types in foliage or form, it may please many readers to make the acquaintance of the Welwitschia Mirabilis. This plant is one of the most extraordinary found on the globe. Its stalk attains the diameter of a large tree trunk, four feet or even more, but never rises more than a foot from the ground. You would take it for the stump of a felled tree, or an enormous fungus. From this stalk extend two leaves, which last as long as the plant, often a century, and acquire an immense size, occasionally six feet long by two wide. They are green, leathery, and by constant flapping in the wind, split at the end into thongs. The top of the stalk hollows in and is marked by a series of concentric circles. From this, especially along the outer edge, spring out branched flower stalks, bearing bright red buds, which finally become cones two inches long by one ia diameter. This plant belongs to the Conifer family, genus Guetum. It was discovered on the west coast of Africa, near Cape Negro, by Dr. Welwitschia, who gave it his name. The negroes call it the Toumbo.