The Haleakala National Park on Maui, Hawaii, holds a beautiful surprise that you might not expect to find in such stark, barren conditions.

It’s the gorgeous shiny ahinahina or Silversword plant.

Found only in Maui (there’s a slightly different species on the Big Island’s Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa) the Haleakala Silversword somehow grows in the volcanic cinder soil, but it is a threatened plant and its roots can be damaged if you walk too closely to it.

I was so absorbed in trying to photograph it that I missed the signs and got a park ranger shout for getting too close, so learn from my mistake. 

While in Maui on the “So Much More Hawaii” bloggers tour (my trip was sponsored and paid for by the state Hawaii Tourism Authority) I enjoyed a ride up to the volcano summit with my local host blogger,  Liza and her family from A Maui Blog.

There’s a lot more to write about Maui in future posts, but I love these plants so much I thought I’d get a couple of photos up as quickly as I could, because they are stunning.

Related posts:

1. Hawaii statehood: pain behind the happy aloha
2. Hang with the locals in Kauai: Hanapepe Friday Art Night
3. How to enjoy historic Waikiki hotels even if you can’t afford to stay there
4. Mount St. Helens Volcano Eruption: 30 Years Ago Today

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 6:27 pm and is filed under Parks and preserves, Sheila projects, US travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.