The silversword is a striking flowering plant found only on the high volcanic slopes of Haleakala and Mauna Kea in Hawaii, where it grows as a rosette of narrow, silver-haired leaves adapted to intense sunlight and cold, dry conditions. A single plant may live for decades before flowering just once, sending up a tall stalk covered in hundreds of small reddish-purple flowers, after which the plant dies. Its extremely limited range and slow life cycle have made habitat protection central to its survival.
Facts
Classification
DietPhotosynthetic Autotroph 2 System (Realm) Living or ExtinctDerived from this species' own Conservation Status: this atlas's IUCN category list has no Extinct value, so a set conservation-status is itself evidence of living status (w-bfill-g5-0924 browse backfill). Identification
Distinguishing AppearanceThe Haleakala silversword has numerous sword-like succulent leaves covered with silver hairs. 1 Scientific NameArgyroxiphium sandwicense 2 Disputed
Conservation Status Connections
Child Taxon Of
Source Wikidata: Silversword
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Australia, found in there.
Sources
1. Haleakala Silversword (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia article (Haleakala silversword subspecies), Description section, first sentenceQuote, Wikipedia article (Haleakala silversword subspecies), Description section, first sentence
has numerous sword-like succulent leaves covered with silver hairs
2. Silversword (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia article, opening sentence
Argyroxiphium sandwicense, the Hawaiʻi silversword, or hinahina is a species of silversword
Wikipedia infobox, Conservation status field, IUCN Red List category, species-level assessment
Endangered
View the Source 3. GBIF Species API
Wikidata: Silversword
Child Taxon Of: Asteraceae, Wikidata parent-taxon (P171) chainView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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