The Welwitschia plant grows only two leaves in its entire life, even though it can live for over 1,500 years.

This strange plant lives in the Namib Desert in Africa, one of the driest places on Earth. It was discovered by a scientist named Friedrich Welwitsch in 1859. Using carbon dating, researchers found that some of these plants have been alive since the time of the fall of the Roman Empire.The leaves grow from a special part of the plant called a basal meristem, which acts like a conveyor belt. They grow about 8 to 15 centimeters every year. In the oldest plants, the leaves can stretch out over 4 meters long if you laid them flat. Because the desert is so dry, the plant has a clever trick to survive.It has tiny holes on its leaves called stomata that soak up moisture from the morning fog that rolls in from the sea. It also has a very long root that reaches deep underground to find hidden water. Even though it looks like a messy weed, it is actually a distant relative of the pine tree. It is the only plant of its kind left on Earth, which is why scientists call it a living fossil.