u/Acceptable-Tip9698

Me and a friend was arguing over a question, she says the subordinate clause split the plant and the hairs, and therefore it is not the plants’s hair.

The question:
Even gently touching the Haleakala ahinahina can mean death for the plant, whose delicate silver hairs protect_____ from solar radiation and dehydration.
A. Itself
B. Them
C. Those
D. It

She says it’s meant to be D but it arguing that it should be A since the antecedent for the hairs is the plant and therefore it should be that the plant’s hair is protecting itself.
English is my second language so I’m sorry for the choppy sentences