Giant cistus plant
Giant land plants at an altitude of 14,000 feet above the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, dating back to prehistoric times!!
The summit of Mount Kilimanjaro is a natural museum of rare giant plants, the likes of which are not found anywhere in the world despite its freezing climate most days of the year.
One of the strangest of these plants is the "Giant Crest" plant, which dates back to a million years ago, which made it interested in certain methods to continue life above that frozen peak, including storing water in the core of the trunk and the plant closing the leaves during periods of freezing and insulating them themselves, as its sap does not freeze as well, otherwise It became extinct a long time ago, and its reproduction depends on the dispersal of pollen by the wind, which does not exceed a few meters around the plant.
They can't compete with actual trees, but it's a bit misleading to say they grow on top of Kilimanjaro. Once you get to Karanja camp at 4200m there is very little vegetation, and at Baravu camp and up Kilimanjaro it's completely barren.
It was originally known as Senecio kilimanjari, but recent botanical reclassification has resulted in some species formerly in Senecio being separated, and placed with various other species in the new genus Dendrosenecio. Both genera belong to the Asteraceae family. Giant land plants of the genus Dendrosenecio evolved, about 1 million years ago, from the Senecio that established itself on Mount Kilimanjaro, with those that survived adapted to the Dendrosenecio kilimanjari. This later colonized other mountains by some means - the standard distance for seed dispersal by wind is a few metres - These isolated groups adapted in different ways from the original groups, creating new species.
There are some places in the world where time seems to have stopped, including Mount Kilimanjaro!!
Source: websites