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What looks like an exploded trash can is in reality an ancient desert plant. Welwitschia mirabilis can be several hundred to more than thousand years old and is optimally adapted to the desert climate. The two leaves creep along the ground and are wetted by the dew. Through wind and animals they fringe and seem to be a whole bundle of foliage.The stem in the middle of the plant is heavily lignified. Their roots reach up to 3 meters deep and 15 m in the circle. There are male and female plants. The pollinating is done by insects, mainly presumably a bug type.
Welwitschia is endemic in the Namib, the desert along the coast of Namibia and the southern part of angola.
Welcome to Africa, AKA the motherland! Check out African Internet Radio while you're scoping the panoramas.The earliest fossil of the homo sapiens family (human beings) was found in Ethiopia, dating back more than 200,000 years. Compared to this length of time, even the "ancient Sumerians" from 6000 B.C. are drooling toddlers.Let's mention a few African heroes you may have heard of, for inspiration in the face of the continued economic inequality and violence which plague Africa today: Nelson Mandela, first democratically elected President of South Africa, who fought against apartheid and served 27 years in prison while advocating freedom and peace. Haile Salassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, who resisted Mussolini and the fascist Italian invasion of WWII, and who is worshipped as an incarnation of God by the Rastafari movement. Kwame Nkrumah, first Prime Minister of Ghana, advocate of uniting Africa in Pan-Africanism. Fela Kuti, inventor of Afrobeat music, who declared his home to be an independent state, ran for president of Nigeria, and to whose funeral ONE MILLION PEOPLE came to pay their respects.In June 2001 the African Union was formed, consisting of 53 African States organized, like in the EU, around common economic and political development.Text by Steve Smith.
