Welwitschia \Wel*witsch"i*a\, n. [NL. So named after the discoverer, Dr. Friedrich Welwitsch.]

(Bot.) An African plant (Welwitschia mirabilis) belonging to the order Gnetace[ae]. It consists of a short, woody, topshaped stem, and never more than two leaves, which are the cotyledons enormously developed, and at length split into diverging segments.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)