Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Another Hoya australis, 1 by atisch

atisch wrote:
I'm a bit amazed by the comparison of your second and forth picture. The distance of leaves on their respective stems are extremely different, the latter being spaced at least an order of magnitude closer on the stem than the former. These appear so different that I'm most curious how you can recognize them as the same species.

Honestly, I'm not trying at all to be disrespectful. To the contrary, I recently posted about a suspected picture of a Hoya pachyclada, that was most unusual also due to the extremely close spacing of the leaves on the stem compared to usual experience (posted again here to enphasize this).

Can this difference be explained simply by the latter plant getting much more light than the former? Or other factors in addition? If so then at least the appearance of some quite different Hoya species are particulary dependent on simple different factors such as light. You obviously recognize the leaves as this is such a common plant in your environment. Can you add any other "light" on this phenomenon?

I think there is a real lesson in the range of appearances that at least some Hoyas can present. Perhaps this is one factor that has led to so much confusion in the Hoya literature in species assignment. This is something I'm very interested in.

Thank you for posting these pictures.