It is found in the African desert and was there when human civilization took its first steps. What is the secret of the plant that cannot die?
It looks like an octopus slumped on the ground just where it could not be and that is in the arid desert that crosses the border between southern Angola and northern Namibia, in the southeast of the African continent. The message is that Welwitschia – which in Afrikaans has the absurd name of “tweeblaarkanniedood” – is certainly not the kind of plant that anyone would put in their home because it is beautiful. But, this yes, it is wonderful: some of the specimens we can observe today were already there when David was crowned king of Israel and the Phoenician alphabet was invented. It is indeed an almost immortal plant. What is its secret?
How does the immortal plant of the African desert live so long
It is certainly interesting that such a specimen of the plant is found in one of the most inhospitable places in the world: the Namib Desert, in fact, receives less than two inches of rainfall per year. It goes without saying that Welwitschia has found a way to survive the lack of water and the prohibitive temperatures: the secret consists in continuously growing its leaves, with their characteristic curled up appearance and yellowed tips. Dead leaves, dead plant. And however those which in the metaphor of the polyp are the tentacles, continue to grow, again and again, making Welwitschia almost older than the same human civilization. According to scientists, walking in the desert you can come across plants 3 thousand years old.
The new studies show that the genome of Welwitschia is a mirror of the environment in which the plant, against all odds, manages to thrive: 86 million years ago the entire genome of Welwitschia has doubled during the longest period of aridity and drought in the region. Far from being a hindrance, Welwitschia draws strength from extreme stress conditions, and the harder the desert makes life for other species, the more the miracle plant thrives instead.
What we can learn from the plant that never dies
According to the scientists, “when we see that the plant is able to live in this environment for so long and preserve its DNA and proteins,” positive repercussions for agriculture are expected. “From strange things, you discover strange things, which help you understand things you didn’t know you didn’t understand,” said said Andrew Leitch, a plant geneticist at Queen Mary University of London.
Not only Welwitschia has excited scholars with its ability to defy the passage of time: in the depths of the ocean, for example, the immortal jellyfish roams. And in Germany there are ants that never grow old.
Giuseppe Giordano