Hoya meliflua

Taxobox | name = "Hoya meliflua"

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image_width = 240px
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Magnoliopsida
ordo = Gentianales
familia = Apocynaceae
genus = "Hoya"
species = "H. meliflua"
binomial = "Hoya meliflua"
binomial_authority = (Blanco) Merrill

"Hoya meliflua" is a vine native to the Philippines. It 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 centeral 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 is very similar to Hoya Fraterna and is sometimes called 'the little fraterna'. The vine is common to Apayao, La Union, Rizal, Bataan, Laguna, Mindoro, Palawan, Negros, Panay, and Leyte. There is also a subspecies called "Hoya meliflua" ssp. "fraterna" that has longer, narrower leaves.

Discovery

Hoya meliflua was first described in 1837 by Francisco Manuel Blanco, who mistakenly identified it as a Stapelia. He called it Stapelia meliflua.
Elmer Drew Merrill subsequently identified it as a Hoya and published it in Sp. Blancoanae 318 (1918) naming it Hoya meliflua. Hoya was originally found on the island of Luzon and so it was given the synonym Hoya Luzonica by Rudolf Schlechter in 1905. 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.

References

*PDFlink| [http://www.botanicus.org/botanicus8/b11793843/31753000247871/31753000247871.pdf] Species Blancoanae: A critical revision of the Philippine species of plants described by Blanco and Llanos, Bureau of Science, Published in Manila, p. 318 (1918)
*Worse, Perkins Fragm flora Philippinae p. 130 (1905)
*Kloppenburg and Ann D. Wayman, The Hoya Handbook (A Guide for the Grower & Collecter) 1992, p. 79
*Malesiana Bulletin Vol Flora (6) October 1995, article by Ted Green - H. meliflua Merrill ssp. Meliflua Merrill SSP. fraterna Green ssp. Fraterna Green SSP. nova Nova
*Reprinted in Fraterna 1 (1995), 2 (1995) and 9 (1995)
*Focke Albers, Ulli Meve succulents lexicon Volume 3 p. 156 (2002)
*The World of Hoyas - a pictorial guide of D. Kloppenburg (1999) p. 154 short description and photo of 155 S. Ann Wayman
*Information Bulletin No. 237/2005 of the Department of Science and Technology Las Banos Philippines, Philippine Hoyas from Simeona V. Siar, p. 10