In Focus: Hoya pubicorolla ssp. anthracina

Hoya pubicorolla ssp. anthracina is well-known in the past years as Hoya pubicalyx 'Black Dragon'. The latter is just a coined 'variety' in commerce to describe its blackish color. The collector is from here in the country, but sold his collection first as export to the western countries but not locally. In effect, the foreign collectors already have it growing beautifully and all of us here in the country are in awe where we can get it. I was just lucky to have connection with some people and was able to get a plant from the collector. Later, when my plant flowered i was so surprised as it is not as black as the photos circling in the net.

I just learned lately that there are two forms of this as collected here. One was real black and the second is the more maroon one just like mine, as presented in the photos below. A friend from Europe offered to give me a cutting of the black form, know someone who might come here for the holidays. I hope there will be a person to bring that from Europe to Manila. I am almost close to praying!

The newer name, Hoya pubicorolla ssp. anthracina, is given by RD Kloppenburg, a former collector who gave names to most of the Philippine hoyas. He was also responsible for the controversial names of many species, as he sometimes give a new name to already identified ones. Lack of knowledge on the characteristics of hoyas to change forms, colors, and leaves shapes through time and growing conditions predisposed the Philippine hoyas to have chaotic names, others actually said "naming of Philippine hoyas is a mess".  Nobody seems to be entering the mess to correct it. 

newly opening buds

side view of the umbel of the newly opening buds

another view of the whole umbel

Sometimes the form is like above, but sometimes it is like below. They seem to be different, but they are in the same plant. That is true with the corolla, but the corona of above and below are the same. 

I love its characteristics of producing continuous umbels for many months. They seem to be always there every month, however there are not as many umbels in one plant as compared to Hoya carnosa. 

Above is the typical plant, shiny green leaves without very prominent venations. The internodes are a bit longer than the other Hoya pubicalyx, but the shape and size of the umbels are just like it. Leaves vary in sizes too, there are leaves which are sometimes longer than the average, as you will see in the above photo. There also a few umbels at the back. 

One of my pot has stems that climbed the lanzones tree. I was not able to see that until i saw an umbel of open flowers as above. I did not remove it anymore, let it climb some more, and this umbel has been flowering for maybe already 6 times. A previous flowering was included in the Hoya Telegrafen, a publication of Sweden, as the editor requested my photo. 

Floral Friday Fotos

In Focus: Hoya 'Black Dragon'

Formerly called The Black Hoya

This hoya was collected from the forest of the Philippines just recently. It was first sold by the collector to foreign markets as Hoya pubicalyx 'Black Dragon'. The photo in the webside really has black corolla. A few attempts in getting it from the collector failed, but subsequent strategies let him sell me one already big plant. It was not cheap, i tell you! Of course, i almost begged him to sell me, so whatever price he quoted, i must pay. So that was the starting story of my 'Black Dragon'. 

flowers starting to burst very obviously showing the pubescent inner corolla

After two long years with constant fertilizing and extra care, it gave me two umbels. The flowers are not as black as that in the collector's website, but it is blacker than most, i suppose. So the observation continued. After many months and lots of not very black corolla color, i read in some collectors abroad that theirs purchased from the same collector also did not appear as black. Some of them were disappointed thinking they were given the wrong species, as the color sometimes are more violet than black.

 the green pedicels

At least mine showed the same characteristics of other parameters except the fully black corolla. I also realized that it was not anymore having its original name, but already changed to Hoya pubicorolla subspecies anthracina. The author said that the original Hoya pubicalyx lectotypes were not existing as they were destroyed in WW II. If that is true or not, an authority still has to make another study and changes if ever that is really reliable. 

 top is almost maroon, while bottom is darker purple almost light black

 If you do not know that the previous 2 photos came from the same plant, you will say they are different! They are both from the same plant, but flowers from different months.

I have a theory that as time goes on the media becomes more acidic, changing the hue from bluish black to reddish. These pigments, being anthocyanins, are very susceptible to change in pH. So i am trying to bring back the black color by alkalinizing the media, however i am not at home most of the time, so it is not done competently. I hope i can do it more religiously when i will be staying at home longer. My color change are changing a bit, but not really very conclusive yet.

 Even the shapes of the individual flowers look different sometimes. Look at the above photo and compare it with the photo above it. They don't look the same, do you agree? But again, they came from the same plant. I know, they are all mine, i took all the photos with the same light setting. The hue differences are obvious to the naked eye in person.

The plant showing the shiny fully green leaves , veins not evident except the midrib. It grows luxuriantly vegetative with a few umbels when fully mature. The good thing here is the continuous flowering once it started, not many simultaneous umbels but continuously. 

The details of the botanical descriptions are here: Kloppenburg, RDK. Hoya New, vol. 1-2, Dec 2013.

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