Events in the genome of Welwitschia have given it the ability to survive in an unforgiving desert for thousands of years.
The longest-lived leaves in the plant kingdom can be found only in the harsh, hyperarid desert that crosses the boundary between southern Angola and northern Namibia.
A desert is not, of course, the most hospitable place for living things to grow anything, let alone leafy greens, but the Namib Desert — the world’s oldest with parts receiving less than two inches of precipitation a year — is where Welwitschia calls home.
Read more at A Plant That ‘Cannot Die’ Reveals Its Genetic Secrets-The New York Times
Natural History Wanderings 
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