As a boy, Mr. Cavuilati often climbed the mountain with his brothers to pick tagimoucia flowers, sometimes sending them into the capital, Suva, for display at festivals. “During that time there were so many flowers,” he said. “Nowadays, it is very hard to find.”

Until about 30 years ago, access to the flower came only by foot. But then a cellphone tower went up on the mountain’s peak, along with a service road. Now people can drive the four-mile pass more easily. Mr. Cavuilati said rarely did anyone come to him to hear the legend or receive his blessing for their journey to the flower.

The path up the mountain is a four-hour-plus hike that starts near Somosomo. Along the way, it was easy to see why the forested mountain was the tagimoucia’s natural protector before the access road was built. The trail is littered with felled trees and craters from giant root systems that were ripped out of the ground by cyclones.

After several hours of hiking, the grandson of Somosomo’s chief, Viliame Mudu, spied a small cluster of flowers halfway up a tree. That was the sole sighting of ruby red petals by our group that day.

The tagimoucia’s peak flowering season of November and December coincides with school’s end, so the flower is a “hot commodity” for graduation garlands, said Hao-Li Lin, an anthropologist who completed his Ph.D. thesis on conservation in Taveuni.

During that period, local hotels bring flowers down for their guests. One morning, Alfred Lewenilovo, 26, headed up the mountain carrying a sugar cane knife and an empty backpack. He said his sister in Suva requested tagimoucia flowers for her 21st birthday garland.