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
gymnosperm: plants of the class Gymnospermae having seeds not enclosed in an ovary
mitral stenosis: obstruction or narrowing of the mitral valve (as by scarring from rheumatic fever)