Dubautia carrii is a species in a family of plants known collectively as the silversword alliance, all of which grow only on the Hawaiian Islands. Members of this alliance exhibit an extraordinary range of phenotypes, with some species maturing into vines and others into shrubs and trees. All species in the alliance descended from a single ancestral tarweed plant that arrived on the islands around 5 million years ago. The tarweed’s descendants diversified into distinct species as they adapted to live in the wide variety of habitats found on the Hawaiian Islands.