Hairy Macro

This Hoya obscura is endemic to the Philippines, first found and collected inSorsogon. I have been trying to get a sharper photo of a single flower, but my time is up and the wind still doesn't allow me a good shot. That single globose individual flower is actually just 5.0mm in diameter. So it really is small, so an outdoor shot is very difficult especially when handheld. But that will not stop me from posting, so please bear with me.

 It has a few color forms, and i choose the yellow with purplish hue to post here.

 They all hang downward pointing to the ground, technically called positively geotropic. into a flat umbel such as this one. This however, was shot at the bottom looking up. When a few of them are open it is very fragrant around our garden, reaching the terrace nearby. Having coffee at the terrace in the afternoon is made very dramatic by the hoya perfume coming from the nearby garden. Some describe the scent as slightly spicy, i call it perfumy sweet. And if a lot of hoyas are in bloom, it is indiscribably fragrant near our house. Isn't it amazing to be taking some pastries and coffee, looking at the roaming butterflies, and the air is full of wonderful fragrance! Please visualize it, and you will agree with me!

 Most of the hoyas start opening in the late afternoon, to preempt the pollinators which are usually nocturnal insects. In the above photo, the flowers are just starting to open, those corolla will totally flex back in what they term as revolute, showing the inside portion lined with hairs.

These are still unopened flowers, with prominently darker colors and very attractive pedicels.

And because the insects roam around 24/7, day and night without rest, some fruits are developed more prominently in this species. I guess it could be because of the more detectable scent attractive to its pollinators.

Macro Monday Too

Our World Tuesday

Nature Notes

Floral Friday Fotos

The Black Hoya

I have been posting hoyas since my collection starts flowering one after the other.  I am not going home every weekend, so you can just imagine how i feel when they decide to bloom in front of my eyes. I hope you can relate with me, as it is trully awesome! 

I bought this already as a mother plant, to lessen the waiting period which tires me in some species. It hasn't even flowered with the previous owner, reason why he sold it to me perhaps. He even gave precautions that i might wait for some months or years before it blooms. This species is not very common also here because the collector from the wild decided to sell it to the US markets before selling to us here in the local scene. I am very glad i was  able to get it ahead of some enthusiasts and die-hard hobbyists. As an absentee gardener i cannot fertilize or water properly, i just left the decisions for caring with my sister who manage our home and garden. She is a bit obliged, but i guess she also learned to appreciate the "fruits" of her labor, to put it more precise, the "flowers" of her labor! 

This is Hoya pubicalyx 'Black Dragon'. The 'Black Dragon' is not a variety but just a name given for commerce. However, just recently it was baptized another name as Hoya pubicorolla subspecies anthracina. It might take sometime for these name controversies be resolved, but DNA analysis will surely be important as the final arbiter. 

 young flower buds in a big umbel 

 a nicely developing advance umbel

flower buds waiting for a few more days to open

 I was looking at the closed flower buds last Saturday afternoon, not expecting the next changes. They started to crack and i really was awed at the unfolding events. I watched them intently as each flower bud slowly transformed to very amazing structures. I forgot first to get the camera, as am mesmerized with the drama unfolding in front of my eyes. I guess the photos will speak to you more personally, as follows!

The dynamically opening buds, they opened at 4:00 pm

the very fine velvet glisten with light

the whole umbel immediately after opening

Now, are you fully convinced of the magic and drama of my Black Hoya? 

Floral Friday Fotos

Todays Flowers

Are these orange enough?

 The leaf of Artocarpus camansi is so big that it can be used as a plate in the wilderness. It is in the same family of jackfruit and breadfruit so they have the same genus. Young fruits of this one we locally call 'camansi'  is used as a vegetable. The fallen leaf starts yellow and turns orange like the above. I love its color among the dry brown leaves on the ground.

 This Ixora is always proud and vigorous under the hot sun. The orange color and its nectar attracts all forms of insects most specially the butterflies.

They don't need to go from one flower to another for the nectar, they just have to withdraw their proboscis from one flower within the cluster to the next flower. Before they leave they have accumulated a lot of nectar already. Their proboscis is designed for deeper flower throats.

Orange You Glad Its Friday

New Bloom Set for GBBD!

I have been so busy these past few days and weeks, it is almost a month since i posted last! And i almost forgot GBBD till i found a link of a followed blog in Facebook. Oh i am late linking with the meme again, i have to finish posting to let more linkers see my blooms. I promise you, i swear (sorry about that) but i promise to give you lovely blooms you are not very familiar with. And i am parading all of them for you to see! Now you decide. Are they good enough to forgive my bragging?

Hoya mindorensis 

Hoya mindorensis

 Hoya ilagiorum immediately after opening

Hoya ilagiorum a few hours after opening with a moth that can't resist its scent

Hoya siariae

Hoya diversifolia

Hoya buotii

 Hoya buotii

 Hoya cv 'Iris Marie"

 Hoya bifunda

 Hoya mindorensis buds

 Hoya pubicalyx buds

 Hoya siariae buds

 Hoya mindorensis buds

 They will not bore you at all. Even the flower buds from start to finish are very interesting. That is not saying that the leaves are not awesome at all, because they all are interesting and capture our fancy. And the more captivating characteristic is the changes in colors or characters as responses to changes in environmental conditions. However, hoyas are just starting to capture the limelight, already a bit controversial because of the changes in naming, and researches are not yet available to explain the observations that hobbyists observe. So please stay tuned, as i will not yet be changing my channel. Thank you very much. If you are not yet a hoya addict, soon you will be! And i again warn you, this disease is contagious.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

Floral Friday Fotos

Todays Flowers