Hoya naumannii

This hoya comes from the Solomon Islands and it was published in 1908. It was collected by Carl Friedrich Naumann and has been named after him. Quite often you see the name spelled with only one n, but that is wrong and should be two. A well known hoya expert (David Liddle) thought this hoya was a wild cross between Hoya australis and Hoya subcalva, which is the same cross as Hoya 'Pinkie'.

This is a very fast growing and easy to care for hoya and it needs a large hoop/support from the beginning. The leaves are light green with visible veins. This hoya loves heat and if it's grown in much sun the leaves get even lighter and can also get a bit yellow, but it seems this hoya needs a lot of sun to bloom. The leaves are 6-12 cm long and 4-7 cm wide and new leaves are often red/brown when young, just like Hoya australis and this is said to be part of the australis complex.

The flowers are really beautiful and you sure can see the resemblance to australis. They are almost flat and about 2.5 cm in diameter. The corolla is white and pink with more pink under the corona which is white with a pink center. You can find anywhere from just a few flowers to about 20 flowers in an umbel. The flowers produce a lot of nectar, but don't drip. The fragrance is quite sweet with something bitter in it, but luckily you have to get rather close to experience the fragrance and the flowers last a litte more than one week. It is said that this hoya has the same fragrance as Hoya 'Pinkie', so I guess these could be the "same" hoya.

I read somewhere that there should be one white and one pink variety of this hoya and that the one I have is probably the pink, but the flowers get a little paler due to light access... no matter if this is true or not this is a really nice hoya!

To view more photos and read about my Hoya naumannii IML 0198, click here:

Hoya naumannii Schechter