Silversword or Ahinahina - Maui Haleakala crater unique plant
The 2 photos above show fully grown Silversword plants in the vast Maui crater... For
fine art prints of these beautiful images in color please go to alpha137.com, Open End.
We trek, we scout, we seek... And sometimes we get rewarded. The bottom panorama was taken during one of many exploratory trips through the volcanic landscapes of this particular Hawaii Island. When I discovered the plant during a Haleakala crater crisscrossing, I was stunned for 2 reasons. One, that it would grow in an area where there was no other plant life of any kind. Two, that it was almost in full bloom, no more than 2-3 days away from it.
Never before had I come upon a Silversword so close to its mature splendor.
What to do..? Camp here, without the necessary equipment..? No way. I would simply have frozen to a stiffo waste. A return to the scene of wonder seemed the only viable choice.
And so I did a few days later... At least I tried to. With all my orientational radar, my photographic memory, I erred through the dormant crater for a day, and then another one. To no avail... A certain "high", combined with a sense of confusion, courtesy of thin air and constantly changing weather conditions, made me lose track of the subject of aesthetic
desire. I'll spare you a description of my frustrations. At times I felt as if Pele might be playing tricks on me. Invisible little Kimulau' guiding me to anywhere but where I wanted
to get so badly. Was I lost in the clouds or out of her grace..? No, it turned out, not quite.
On the last day of my almost desperate roaming, I was atoned. The Goddess had it all set
up for me. With a cutsie little Kimulau on top... WOW. I got on my knees (to take a series
of shots) and mumbled: "Mahalo! Mahalo! Mahalo!"
To view a limited series print of the resulting image, Silversword with Kimulau, in black and white, please click alpha137.com/gall13.