Division of Forestry and Wildlife: Native Ecosystems Protection & Management

‘Ahinahina (Argyroxiphium sandwicense ssp. sandwicense) is a giant rosette plant. The plant grows as a ball-shaped basal rosette composed of narrow lance-shaped leaves that may be up to 39 cm (15.4 in) long and up to 1.5 cm (0.6 in) wide at the midpoint. Leaves are coated with silvery hairs. The inflorescence stalk, the bracts (modified or specialized leaf) that occur close to the pedicels (a small stalk bearing an individual flower in an inflorescence), and the involucre (aprotective structure) bracts are all covered with sticky glandular hairs that emit a faint sweet odor. Flower heads are 2 cm (0.8 in) in diameter, and have white to pink ray florets and pink to maroon disk florets. Each floret produces a single fruit, an achene, which may or may not contain a single seed. Achenes are black, 1 cm (0.4 in) long, and have a pappus of one to six short scales (“`Ahinahina (Argyroxiphium Sandwicense Ssp. Sandwicense),” n.d.P). ‘Ahinahina survives best in high elevation, moist, gravel surfaces that can be protected from ungulates (Walker & Powell., 1999). It is related to the Haleakala Silversword (subsp. macrocephalum) which is known from Maui.