Silver Sword

There are many plants, insects, and critters that only live at the top of this volcano and nowhere else. It reminded us of Rocky Mountain national park with the fragile high elevation tundra. The silver sword was particularly interesting. It seems like a succulent, but has the silver color to reflect the sun and take advantage of the extra warmth. It can live for about 50 years, blooms once for a day, then dies. Once it decomposes, it has an outer shell similar to a giant cactus.