Hoya medusa gets its name from “the serpentine processes of the inner corona reminiscent of the snake headdress of Medusa in Greek mythology.”

The following information was taken from “Hoya medusa M.D. De Leon, Cabactulan, Cuerdo, & Rodda in Pelser, P.B., J.F. Barcelona & D.L. Nickrent (eds.). 2011 onwards. Co’s Digital Flora of the Philippines. www.philippineplants.org.” Once again a big shout out to Mary Carroll for digging all of this up.

“Plant epiphytic pendent shrub, with slender terete stems. Leaf blades coriaceous, stiff, flat to slightly curved, variable in shape, oblong, ovate, to elliptic-ovate, 5.5-9 cm long × 2-3.4 cm wide, base acute to obtuse, apex acute to acuminate, with a caudate tip, margins entire, occasionally slightly undulate sparsely pubescent to glabrescent in older leaves, venation pinnate-brochidodromous, with 4-8 lateral veins on each sides of mid vein, prominent (very pale green) on younger leaves and obscure on older leaves yet clearly visible on dried specimens, colleters one at each lamina base, conical, c. 0.20 mm long, grayish brown. Inflorescence extra-axillary, umbelliform, convex, with up to 11 (16) flowers. Calyx lobes oblong, 1.8-2 mm long, reddish, abaxially strigose, adaxially glabrous, basal colleters 1 between each calyx lobe. Corolla basally urn-shaped, with flat spreading lobes, white, corolla lobes spreading, 0.85 to 1.0 cm in diameter, lobes triangular ovate, apex acute, slightly revolute, margins revolute, inner surface glabrous, outer surface densely strigose, white. Corona staminal 4-5 mm high, c. 3 mm in diam., corona lobe bulbous-obpyriform, inner (apical) process caudate, upright, curved, wavy to serpentine, meeting at the center and overlapping, erect above the gynostegium, outer (basal) process obovate, with basal revolute margins white and yellowish in center.”

“Hoya medusa was collected by local collectors in Luzon Island, Mt. Cetaceo and has been in cultivation, circulated by local plant nurseries and plant hobbyists. It was first collected in low montane forest at 500 to 1,000 m where it was growing as an epiphyte in disturbed primary broadly leaf and mossy forest in full sun to part shade.” Thanks to Mary Carroll for providing the information!

Tomorrow I will begin talking about another first-time bloomer for me Hoya medusa. For now here is a teaser photo of the flowers:

This plant is living on a mostly north windowsill with no artificial aids, and the increasing day length has produced its first flowers since starting the plant over last year. Here are the freshly opened, green, flowers that have yet to reflex:

While my plant looks pretty horrible, I felt it was important to show that not every Hoya that comes into my collection turns up as a success. Despite the pretty little flowers I would have to rank Hoya Species Unknown sp. aff. solaniflora in my top 3 of the worst looking plants that I have ever produced. If I ever figure out how to grow it, I will bring it back here and tell the secret, but sadly for now I have to give it a thumbs down.

Here are a couple of close-ups of the flowers of Hoya sp. aff. solaniflora (species Unknown):

The flowers while small look quite beautiful. I could not detect a scent as of this posting.

I could not even wait for the buds to open before spraying the entire plant with sulfur. I began thinking that possible these half yellow leaves might be caused by flat mites, the invisible Hoya scourge. It is far to early to know if this will have any effect. Below some better looking leaves on my sad looking specimen:

If all of the leaves looked this good, it would be a nice looking plant. I am determined to solve this issue!

I used the same coco husk substrate with all of my plants and nothing has ever looked as bad as the leaves on Hoya Species Unknown aff. solaniflora. By the way, this plant used to be called Hoya sp. aff. solaniflora, but apparently it was decided that it was not really close enough to the real H. solaniflora to deserve the Aff. designation so now the poor thing is Hoya species unknown.

The roots on the plant look healthy, and it puts out new growth that occasionally looks pretty good so I have hopes that it turns around and becomes healthier looking with age. The plant was at least able to put out a peduncle and buds in its less than stellar condition.