Talk:Argyroxiphium sandwicense subsp. macrocephalum

Redirects/Content Merge

I redirected Silver Sword (botany) to Silversword. I combined Silver Sword (Botany) with this page. Then I added a see also at the top of the main Silversword page.(Blu3d3vil 14:46, 8 February 2007 (UTC))

Blooming frequency

Can someone add to the article how frequently the flower blooms? I keep reading online that it blooms only once in its lifetime or once every 50 years. Sourced info from a scientific botanical book or tract would be very helpful. Thanks. Softlavender (talk) 12:03, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

I added a link to a page with dated photos for several years showing the progression of flowering, which is July to October (the pictures in the article are also dated and show the same pattern). KarlM (talk) 06:22, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm still not seeing any sourced information that the plant blooms only once and then dies, and that this is often at >50 years. I see mentions of that in the article, but none of it is sourced. Please someone verify the information from reliable texts and post the citations in the relevant places. Thanks. Softlavender (talk) 04:31, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

I can't give you anything I can cite, but having been to the craters, there are multiple posted signs warning about their fragility and their demise afterwords.66.91.36.12 (talk) 01:39, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

SIZE of this plant?

It would be great if someone (maybe me, later) could add info about the SIZE of the plants (both when in bloom and before blooming). philiptdotcom (talk) 16:30, 31 December 2014 (UTC)

Height of flower spike is given, ~ 2m. The leafy part (my guesstimate) typically 30 - 60 cm. Awien (talk) 23:03, 31 December 2014 (UTC)

Why?

This move has made it much harder for the ordinary person to get to the article. Was it really necessary? Awien (talk) 18:12, 18 May 2016 (UTC)

So you typed the old title "Haleakalā silversword" with a macron over the ā, and were hopelessly confused by Wikipedia's string of Latin gibberish as the first Google result (but managed to make your way to the Wikipedia article talk page in spite of that massive inconvenience to complain about it). Or did you type "Haleakala silversword" using the standard characters on your keyboard, and were hopelessly confused by the Wikipedia gibberish in the second Google result? You made it here either way, the redirects work. But it's more important to invite arguments about whether "Haleakalā" is the redirect and "Haleakala" the title or vice versa than to use the scientific name title that works best 99% of the time? Plantdrew (talk) 03:41, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

I've been here for years, and my Latin is probably 99th percentile. I'm thinking of the average tourist who tries to look up Silversword or Maui silversword. Don't propose to fight, though. Awien (talk) 12:19, 26 May 2016 (UTC)

Well, anybody looking for "Maui silversword" wouldn't have been much helped by either the old title or the present title. I've added mention of "east Maui silversword" to the article and created a redirect. Most plants don't have any common names. Most plants that do have common names have multiple common names. And the average reader doesn't know all the common names (or the scientific name). We can arbitrarily pick one of "east Maui" or "Haleakala" (or "Haleakalā") and hope that the readers know that Haleakala is on Maui; but if they don't know that the other common name is no less confusing the scientific name. Or we can mention all the common names in the article and create redirects that get the reader here regardless of what term they search for. They're here to learn after all, and is it so terrible if the first thing they learn is the scientific name? I really don't think anybody searching (by whatever common name) for a Wikipedia article on this plant is going to be so put off by the scientific name in the Google results that they will refuse to click through to the article. Plantdrew (talk) 16:46, 26 May 2016 (UTC)