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.

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