The silvery hairs, fleshy leaves, and low-growing rosette form of Hawai'i silverswords allow them to survive in hot, dry climates like the aeolian desert cinder slopes of the crater at Haleakala National Park on Mau'i. and the high deserts of Mauna Loa on the Big Island of Hawai'i.
Silverswords live between 3 and 90 years or more. They flower once, sending up a spectacular flowering stalk, and then die soon afterward, scattering drying seeds to the wind.
Delicate silverswords ('ahinahina), once ripped up and taken home by visitors as souvenirs, now depend on management efforts for survival. Park staff fence silversword-munching ungulates out, destroy non-native plants that would crowd out silverswords, and educate park visitors to stay on trails to avoid stepping on fragile silversword seedlings and root systems. Climate change and invasive species also continue to place these rarest of plants in tremendous peril.
Last updated: August 23, 2019