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| Welwitschia mirabilis, Ugab River Basin, Namibia (2004).Source: Wikipedia |
Plant:
Welwitschia mirabilis
Division: Family:
Gnetophyta Welwitschiaceae
Habitat:
"Welwitschia mirabilis was discovered by the Austrian botanist,explorer and medical doctor, Friedrich Welwitsch, in 1859 in the Namib Desert of southern Angola. The story goes that he was so overcome by his find that he knelt down next to it and simply stared!
Thomas Baines, the renowned artist and traveller, also found a plant in the dry bed of the Swakop River in Namibia in 1861. Welwitsch sent the first material of Welwitschia to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, Director of Kew, in 1862. Hooker described it and named it in honour of Welwitsch, despite the fact that Welwitsch recommended that it be named Tumboa, its native Angolan name. Its species name mirabilis means marvellous or wonderful in Latin.
The specific name was later changed to bainesii to honour both men involved in its discovery, but by the rules of botanical nomenclature, mirabilis is the current and valid name [Notten, Alice. (2003). South African National Biodiversity Institute]."
For more information, go to the website of the South African National Biodiversity Institute:
Note from blog owner:
*One of the scholarly publications of the University of Namibia is called Welwitschia International Journal of Agricultural Sciences.
*Here is an example of an article published in the above-mentioned journal:
Awala, S. K., Hove, K., Wanga, M. A., Valombola, J. S., & Mwandemele, O. D. (2019). Rainfall trend and variability in semi-arid northern Namibia: Implications for smallholder agricultural production. Welwitschia International Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 1, 1-25.
Abstract:
Rainfall defines livelihood patterns among agrarian communities of the climate-change vulnerable semi-arid Sub-Saharan Africa. However, it remains inadequately studied, resulting in ineffective water management policies and weak agricultural growth in the region. Monthly rainfall data collected between 1987 and 2018 at four stations along a 1200 km climatic gradient in northern Namibia were analysed for annual, seasonal and monthly trends and variability. Descriptive measures and the Mann-Kendall test were used for rainfall characterisation and trend detection, respectively. Results showed an annually increasing rainfall trend, but with a downward trend in the dry season decreasing by -0.14 mm year–1 and an upward trend in the rainy season increasing by 7.74 mm year–1 across the study area. The rainy-season mean monthly rainfall showed predominantly increasing trends, while the dry-season ones exhibited insignificant decreasing trends. The study detected a decreasing rainfall gradient from the northeast towards the northwest with a range of 156.8 mm and concomitant increasing spatial-temporal variability. The upward rainfall trend has implications for rainy season floods, whereas the downward trend suggests dry season drought intensification in the area. These results could be useful for rainwater management planning in the study area and other dryland regions.