Hoya meliflua

Description

Hoya meliflua is a species of vine in the Apocynaceae family. It is endemic to the Philippines. The vine is common to Apayao, La Union, Rizal, Bataan, Laguna, Mindoro, Palawan, Negros, Panay, and Leyte. Hoya meliflua has stiff succulent leaves with a very clean look to them with no venation. The flowers are reddish orange and have nectaries near the base of the central column from which a dark sap is produced that stains very easily. In fact, its name is derived from the word "mellis" meaning honeydew and the word "fluo" meaning flow, referring to the dark nectar of the plant that stains the flowers. The plant flowers in June in the Philippines and each flower cluster comes with 10-20 flowers. Hoya meliflua was first described in 1837 by Francisco Manuel Blanco, who mistakenly identified it as a Stapelia. He called it Stapelia meliflua. Hoya meliflua was originally found on the island of Luzon and so it was given the synonym Hoya luzonica by Rudolf Schlechter in 1905. Elmer Drew Merrill subsequently identified it as a Hoya, not Stapelia, and published it in Sp. Blancoanae 318 (1918) naming it Hoya meliflua. There are several other synonyms for Hoya meliflua including Hoya carnosa named by Blanco in 1845, Hoya Diversifolia by Fernandez in 1880, and Hoya parasitica by Fernandez in 1880. These synonyms were found to be invalid under Article 53.1 of international nomenclature. Hoya meliflua is very similar to Hoya fraterna and is sometimes called 'the little fraterna'. Hoyas are evergreen perennial creepers or vines or rarely, shrubs. They often grow epiphytically on trees; some grow terrestrially, or occasionally in rocky areas. They climb by twining, and with the employment of adventitious roots. Larger species grow 1–18 m (3–59 ft), or more, with suitable support in trees. They have simple entire leaves, arranged in an opposite pattern, that are typically succulent. Leaves may exhibit a variety of forms, and may be smooth, felted or hairy; venation may be prominent or not, and many species have leaf surfaces flecked with irregular small silvery spots.