Torn to Ribbons in the Desert Botanists puzzle over one of Earth's oddest plants

摘要

Judy Jernstedt admits that the plant she went almost halfway around the world to see looks "like a pile of trash." That's part of its charm. And to be fair about it, that's not the only way that Jernstedt describes the remarkable Wel-witschias of southwestern Africa. "They look like giant spiders creeping over the hills," she says.