carolingian: a member of the Carolingian dynasty
organism: a living thing that has (or can develop) the ability to act or function independently
welwitschia: curious plant of arid regions of southwestern Africa having a yard-high and yard-wide trunk like a turnip with a deep taproot and two large persistent woody straplike leaves growing from the base; living relic of a flora long disappeared; some may be 700-5000 years old