Other than perhaps Hoya serpens, I can’t think of another Hoya with blooms that are actually a little larger than its leaves. Here is one of the flowers below shown with a dime for comparison.
The cool temperatures did not phase it however, and may even have helped contribute to it forming a peduncle and bring it into flower. It was endemic to a mountainous region of PNG, so it must have lived in coolish temps. I was however shocked to find that peduncle on such a tiny plant, and when it began forming buds, I looked at it every day with a magnifying glass. It produced four buds, with two opening on day one, one more opening on day three, and the final bud opening on day four. The flowers had no detectable scent.
I paid close attention to the little plant, and even though the root system was not that large it required watering twice a week. I was concerned that the environment of my basement grow tent might be too cool for it, but there was little I could do to change it. My new LED lighting system coupled with HVAC changes, made it much cooler in my basement than it had been in past years. Nighttime temps were falling as low as 55 F, and when the light were on it struggled to make it to 72 F.
I was very lucky that my tiny two inch sprig perked up and began growing roots after a couple of weeks in water. I potted it into a 3 oz clear cup with holes drilled in the bottom, and used mostly coco chips with a little perlite for a substrate. This Hoya sat there not doing much of anything for what seemed like forever, but was probably a few months. It suddenly one day though started to start showing growth points and finally began to grow, albeit slowly.
Hoya microphylla came to me as a very tiny rooted cutting in May of 2023 from my good friend Julie Kennedy. The plant was one of 16 that arrived in the form of a trade, and all of them spent far too much time in the mail. The package spent 3 days just sitting in a postal distribution facility in New Hampshire. When I finally received the package, some of the plants were not in great shape. Hoya microphylla was one of them. After watching it deteriorate for about a week, I looked at the roots which were totally gone. I decided to snip the tiny 2 inch plant and attempted to root it in a small cup of water.
“Friedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter. 18614. Papua New Guinea: auf Bäumen in den Wäldern des Bismarck-Gebirges. Northeastern New Guinea, on trees in the forests of the Bismarck Mountains, 1100 m. Slender epiphytic half shrub with threadlike branches. Leaf blades erect, spreading, ovate, somewhat obtuse, margins recurved, reticulately nerved, leathery, glabrous, 1-2 cm long. Inflorescence umbel like, with up to 6 flowers. Sepals small, ovate, somewhat obtuse, glabrous, much smaller than those of the corolla. Corolla broadly campanulate, parted to the middle, outer surface glabrous, inner surface glabrous except for the puberulous margins of the Iobes, approx. 2 cm. in diameter, lobes somewhat orbicular, shortly acuminate, show white. Corona lobes spreading, somewhat horizontal, apex slightly acuminate, below the middle concave, under surface smooth margined, dark violet.”
A big thanks to Mary Carroll for providing the above information!
Based on the type description – A charming small species which is closely related to the two following ones (Hoya microstemma and Hoya minahassae). Its leaves are more like that of a Dischidia and are smaller than any other of the species in the section, in this area. The blooms are snow white with dark violet coronas.
Hoya microphylla was discovered by the German botanist Rudolf Schlechter in Northeastern New Guinea, on trees in the forests of the Bismarck Mountains, 1100 m. 2 November 1908.
