As of today, peak season now, through ~September 30. Earth Exhibit tracks the live conditions and flags it the moment it is on.
On the gravel plains of the Namibe Desert in southwest Angola — the northern reach of the Namib, the oldest desert on Earth — grows one of the strangest plants alive: Welwitschia mirabilis.
A true living fossil whose lineage reaches back to the age of the dinosaurs, each plant grows just two leaves in its entire life, splitting and fraying over the centuries into a wind-torn tangle sprawled across the sand.
The largest individuals are estimated at well over a thousand years old, some perhaps 1,500 or more, surviving almost entirely on moisture wrung from the coastal fog that rolls in off the cold Atlantic.
Scattered across the plains near Iona National Park, these ancient survivors stand in near-silence, neither tree nor shrub nor anything familiar, a botanical relic from another world.
Angola holds the least-visited northern stands of the species, contiguous with Namibia's Skeleton Coast, where the plants endure in one of the most remote and untouched corners of the Namib.
Where to see it
A taste of where to see it. The full map, exact coordinates and the best timing for each spot live in the app.
| Viewing spots |
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| Welwitschia plains, Iona National Park (Namibe) |
This is the short version
This page shows a taste. The app has the full list of where to see this, the exact timing, and live conditions for 1,000+ natural phenomena worldwide, so you know the moment one is genuinely worth the trip.