Welwitschia mirabilis, from the Namib Desert, can live more than a thousand years with just two leaves.
Why it is true
The two leaves never fall off: they keep growing from the base for the plant's whole life and gradually split into strips in the wind and heat. It lives in one of the driest deserts in the world, where it hardly ever rains.
Source: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
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