To celebrate the equinox, we drove to the top of Haleakala, Maui’s 10,023 foot volcano.

Above the clouds, we saw the landscape change from lush tropical greenery to sparse shrubs and rocks. An endemic plant, the silversword, which looks like a cross between an aloe and an artemsia, captured our fancy. It grows for twenty years before flowering and dying. 70 years ago it was near extinction but it has made a comeback, with several thousand plants growing in the harsh environment of the mountaintop. Posted by kuri at March 22, 2001 02:42 AM