Thousand-year-old plant
The Welwitschia mirabilis is a desert-dwelling plant with a particular claim to fame: it can live over 1500 years. It grows only 2 long, wide leaves which look like straps, that grow along the ground, and split into different sections as they are buffeted by the wind.
Living in the Namib desert, the vast area that the leaves cover is what enables the plant to survive in such high temperatures. It was named after the Austrian botanist who first collected it for study in 1860, Friedrich Welwitsch.