Argyroxiphium virescens Hillebr. (1888:219)

'ahinahina, Greensword

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Synonyms: Argyroxiphium forbesii H.St.John in Pacific Sci. 25: 68 (1971); Argyroxiphium virescens var. paludosa H.St.John in Pacific Sci. 25: 70 (1971)

Conservation Status

Missing (Fosberg & Herbst, 1975:19 [as "poEX"]; Wood et al., 2019; PEPP, 2024; NatureServe, 2026) or Extinct (WCMC, 1992:217; Wagner et al., 1999a:17; Bruegmann & Caraway, 2003; Baillie & Butcher, 2012:88; Humphreys et al., 2019; Abeli et al., 2022b; POWO, 2024; Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2025; Wagner et al., 2026:16)

Last record: 1945 (Wood et al., 2019; Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2025; NatureServe, 2026); 1945 (pure individual); 1996 (hybrid)

IUCN RedList status: Extinct

Distribution & Habitat

Haleakala Crater, Maui (east), Hawaiian Islands, USA

Biology & Ecology

"We also checked...specimens of the extinct species, A. virescens. No leaf mines were found on these herbarium specimens." (Kobayashi et al., 2021)

Hypodigm

Media

References

Original scientific description:

Hillebrand, W. F. (1888). Flora of the Hawaiian Islands: a description of their phanerogams and vascular cryptogams. Facsimile ed., 1981. Lubrecht & Cramer, Monticello, NY. 673 pp.

Other references:

Abeli, Thomas, Sharrock, Suzanne and Albani Rocchetti, Giulia. (2022a). Out-of-date datasets hamper conservation of species close to extinction. ResearchSquare preprint. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1250892/v1

Abeli, Thomas, Sharrock, Suzanne and Albani Rocchetti, Giulia. (2022b). Out-of-date datasets hamper conservation of species close to extinction. Nature Plants 8: 1370-1373. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-022-01293-w

Baillie, Jonathan E. M. and Butcher, Ellen R. (2012). Priceless or Worthless? The world’s most threatened species. London, UK: Zoological Society of London.

Bruegmann, M. M. and Caraway, V. (2003). Argyroxiphium virescens. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2003: e.T44078A10848934. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2003.RLTS.T44078A10848934.en. Downloaded on 16 November 2016.

Carr, G. D. (1985). Monograph of the Hawaiian Madiinae (Asteraceae): Argyroxiphium, Dubautia, and Wilkesia. Allertonia 4: 1-123.

Carr, G.D. (1990). Argyroxiphium, pp. 258-262 in: Wagner, W.L., D.R. Herbst, and S.H. Sohmer, Manual of the flowering plants of Hawai`i. Special Publ. Bishop Mus., Honolulu 83: 1-1853.

Christenhusz, Maarten J. M. and Govaerts, Rafaël. (2023). Uitgestorven. Op plantenjacht rond de wereld: 1-511. Sterck & De Vreese.

Christenhusz, Maarten J. M. and Govaerts, Rafaël. (2025). Plant extinction in the Anthropocene. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 207(3): 183-196. https://doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boae045 [Appendix S1]

Fosberg, F. R. and Herbst, Derral R. (1975). Rare and endangered species of Hawaiian vascular plants. Allertonia 1(1): 1-72 [19]. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23189952

Humphreys, Aelys M., Govaerts, Rafaël, Ficinski, Sarah Z., Lughadha, Eimear Nic and Vorontsova, Maria S. (2019). Global dataset shows geography and life form predict modern plant extinction and rediscovery. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3: 1043-1047. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0906-2 [Supplementary Dataset 1]

Imada, C. T., Wagner, Warren L. and Herbst, D. R. (1989). Checklist of native and naturalised flowering plants of Hawai'i. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 29: 1-87.

Kartesz, J. T. (1994). A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. 2nd edition. 2 vols. Timber Press, Portland, OR.

Keck, D. D. (1936). The Hawaiian Silverswords: systematics, affinities, and phytogeographic problems of the genus Argyroxiphium. Occas. Pap. Bernice P. Bishop Mus. 11(19): 1-38.

Kobayashi, Shigeki, Johns, Chris A. and Kawahara, Akito Y. (2021). Revision of the Hawaiian endemic leaf-mining moth genus Philodoria Walsingham (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae): its conservation status, host plants and descriptions of thirteen new species. Zootaxa 4944(1): 1-175. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4944.1.1

NatureServe. (2026). Argyroxiphium virescens: Greensword. NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer [web application]. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available at: https://explorer.natureserve.org/ [Accessed on 21 August 2026]

PEPP. (2024). Plant Extinction Prevention Program species list, January 2024. Available at: http://www.pepphi.org/pep-species-list.html [Accessed 10 February 2025]

POWO. (2024). Plants of the World Online (online resource). Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. Available at: https://powo.science.kew.org/ [Accessed 25 August 2024]

Roskov, Y. et al. (eds.). (2018). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. (2003). Rare plant database. Unpublished.

Wagner, Warren L., Bruegmann, Marie M., Herbst, Derral M. and Lau, Joel Q. C. (1999a). Hawaiian Vascular Plants at Risk: 1999. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 60: 1-58.

Wagner, W., Herbst, D. and Sohmer S. (1999b). Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawaii. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Special Publication 91: 1-1918.

Wagner, Warren L., Khan, Nancy R., Lorence, David H., Flynn, Timothy W. and Wood, Kenneth R. (2026). Checklist of native and naturalized Hawaiian vascular plants. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 123: i-xii + 1-96, 3 tables. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.32124043

Walter, Kerry S. and Gillett, Harriet J. (eds.). (1998). 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants. Compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Gland, Switzerland & Cambridge, UK: IUCN – The World Conservation Union. lxiv + 862 pp.

WCMC (World Conservation Monitoring Centre). (1992). Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth's living resources. London: Chapman & Hall. xx + 594 pp.

Wood, Kenneth R., Oppenheimer, Hank and Keir, Matthew. (2019). A checklist of endemic Hawaiian vascular plant taxa that are considered possibly extinct in the wild. National Tropical Botanical Garden, Technical Report #314.

http://www.pepphi.org/uploads/2/5/4/7/25478598/pep_list_20180410.pdf

http://www.pepphi.org/uploads/2/5/4/7/25478598/pep_list_20150420.pdf

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