Okay, it's not a Hoya (for those who looked at it and said, "That's not a Hoya"). I was looking through my old photos and came across this. It's still an Asclepid, the flowers certainly give that away. Here it's a declared noxious weed, called Rubber Bush, Calotropis procera.
So there you have it, your piece of trivia for the day.
Just googled it....highly poisonous and spreading on these islands too. Pretty flowers. We apparantly have a caterpillar with strong yellow and black markings ( warning stripes ) which eats this plant to build up its toxic levels to ward off predators.
Very nice flowers!
Beautiful bloom! I wouldn't mind having a noxious weed like that ... or after further reading, maybe NOT!
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CAPR
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Rubber%2520Bush.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Rubber%2520Bush.html&usg=__pQBBq69PEqwIUIc-e7OC97wtGK0=&h=384&w=512&sz=30&hl=en&start=9&um=1&tbnid=Ri86PEL3w4_8aM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=131&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drubber%2Bbush%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26um%3D1
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/calotr09.html
Not one for the salad bowl, Lin..:))
Wow, beautiful flowers! Love the color of those flowers. Too bad hoyas don't come in that shade of purple/lavender.
Mike
I keep going back and looking at tropic's photo ... that color is amazing! Makes me want to buy one of those plants but I am so limited on space!
Dom: LOL, I noticed the word POISON in large red letters at that one site. If it is toxic, I don't think anyone would want any parts of it in their salad.
I see from the map it is found in California, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands too, so lots of folks get to see those beautiful blooms!
I just sprouted some of these seeds
The story here is that the fluff around the seeds was used as stuffing in horse saddles. As the stockmen rode around the country sometimes the stiching on the saddles would break and some seeds fall out.
On the poison issue, all the literature says it's poisonous. I've done a lot of bushwalking/trekking in open range cattle country and have seen the Calotropis bushes eaten down. And I'm sure is wasn't giant caterpillars.
Great story about the "Fluff" used for saddles, and how the seed is scattered about the country! And, it definitely sounds like the plant isn't poisonous to some critter!
Well, I think it's kind of like the rumor of Euphorbias being poisonous. Same with Poinsettias. Those old wives tales have been going around for years and just will not die.
It could be that the plant is poison to humans but not to animals. I have heard that Honeysucke berries are poison to humans, but the birds eat them with no problem.
Mike
One mistake that can prove fatal is to see animals eat something and think that humans can eat it as well. Perhaps the most graphic example is roadkill a few days old. Birds dine on it in glee.
