Flowering Plants of Africa 57:2-8 (2001) "Welwitschia" is named after the Austrian botanist Friedrich Welwitsch who first delivered specimens plus an account of the species to Joseph Dalton Hooker of the Linnean Society of London in 1859.
Flowering Plants of Africa 57:2-8 (2001) "Welwitschia mirabilis" is endemic to the Namib desert within Namibia and Angola. Welwitsch was the first to deliver an account of the species to Joseph Dalton Hooker of the Linnean Society of London in 1859.