Affinities of other living Gnetales to Welwitschia do not help understand
the genus at all because they too are highly specialized in their mode of
growth. Ephedra are coralliform shrubs while Gnetum are woody lianas.

Welwitschia has a single woody stem arising from a deep taproot. The
flowering crown is raised well above the ground level on a woody trunk. It
most definitely is a tree.


"Iris Cohen" wrote in message
...
Welwitschia is indeed a tree in the botanical sense of the word. Have
you
ever seen one in your reality?
They don't grow wild in Toronto.

However, the last time I was in the Royal Botanical Garden in Hamilton,
which
is on the way to Toronto, they had one. They even had an olive tree.
As I mentioned before, the reason Welwitschia doesn't look like a tree is
that
much of its trunk is underground. It is a member of the order Gnetales,
which
may be changed to a subdivision. It is related to Gnetum & Ephedra. They
are
peculiar plants somewhere between the angiosperms and gymnosperms, but
closer
to the conifers.

Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, It's the light of the oncoming
train."
Robert Lowell (1917-1977)