[2][3] Its members are known by the common names silversword or greensword due to their long, narrow leaves and the silvery hairs on some species.

[6] In all Argyroxiphium species, long, narrow leaves contain interstitial gels hypothesized to function as water storage.

For some species, leaves are covered with trichomes that provide protection from frost and create the plants' signature silver sheen.

[10] Because they are self-incompatible and require cross-pollination by insects, many plants must flower at the same time in relatively close proximity to set seed.

Sympatric species in Argyroxiphium and Dubautia often naturally produce fertile hybrids that run the gamut of morphological characteristics from the two genera.

The relation is also physically evident—silversword capitulae and the flowers of Californian tarweeds both include sticky bracts that provide adhesion to birds for seed dispersal.

[14] The East Maui greensword (A. virescens) is apparently extinct, but in 1989 plants were discovered that appear to be hybrids between it and the Haleakalā silversword.