The Iliau loop trail on Kauai is one of those essentially unique places in Hawaii where you can see a plant that grows nowhere else on this planet. Iliau (Wilkesia gymnoxiphium) is a member of the silversword alliance, along with the silverswords and Dubautias.
A Haleakala silversword:
The growth form of the Wilkesia species is the most unusual of the species in the silversword alliance. They are like a yucca on a stick. There is a tall stalk (one to two meters, sometimes more) topped by a rosette of long, narrow, dark green leaves, without pubescence (hence the specific epithet “gymnoxiphium”).
The stalk is usually unbranched, but sometimes branched.
The rosette eventually produces a flower stalk, half a meter or more in length, which grows out of the central part of the rosette. Flowering is usually during May, June, and July. The flower stalk produces dozens of inflorescences along the stalk.
The inflorescences I have seen are pale yellow to cream colored, and are obviously sunflower-like.
After flowering and seed set, the flower stalk and the entire plant dies.
In branched individuals, only the branch that is flowering dies, and the rest of the plant lives. In the one individual that we saw with six branches, all of the branches were flowering simultaneously.
The Iliau Loop Trail is near Waimea Canyon, and is near the start of the Kukui Trail, which goes down into the canyon. A view of Waimea Canyon:
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