Hoya minahassae

Hoya minahassae comes from Sulawesi and was collected November 19, 1909 on the Lake Poso side of the Tineba Mountains, and it was described in 1916. According to Christine Burton the name is unresolved, and the plant that we all call H. minahassae is really something else.  It is what everyone calls this plant so I shall too until the name is resolved.

The foliage of this plant gets a lovely reddish bronze coloration in good light, which makes for a very becoming plant. It came to me in May of 2018 from Thailand.  It was in rough shape as most plants are that come ripped from their growing media and shipped across the world. I potted it up in my regular mix, and put it into a warm propagator for about 3 weeks where it began to revive. I then moved it to my regular high humidity grow tent.  The plant grew steadily and I eventually moved it up to a 4 inch plastic pot.  It developed a peduncle in May of 2019, where it quickly formed buds and flowered almost to the day of the one year anniversary of its arrival.

The flower scent is reminiscent of perfumed citrus. I love these flowers as they look quite different than most other Hoya flowers  They are about 1/2 inch across, and very long lasting. This is a great plant that does not take up a lot of room, and I think it has a place in most collections.