While out recently bushwalking on Hinchinbrook Island I found some Hoya which seems obviously australis. The options are tenuipes or sanae, both found in Queensland.
Another Hoya australis
The first place I found it was on a rocky slope under forest canopy where it got filtered sunlight. It wasn't far from a small waterfall. The falls were barely running this time of year.
Later I found more on exposed rock and boulders right on the coast line where it was exposed to more sun and salt spray.
It was either growing from cracks in the rock or from under boulders.
This photo shows it with some of its 'companions', Dendrobium discolor and Scaevola taccada which are quite salt tolerant.
Wow, those pictures are fantastic. Best shots of australis in habitat that I've ever seen!
Tropic, great photos of natural habitat. I want to move there just so I can see those hoyas in the wild. LOL
Thanks for sharing.
Jan
How interesting! What a great experience it must be to trek about and see these plants in their natural setting! Thanks for sharing.
This is just wonderful TB! I so wish that I could see these plants in their natural habitat like you do,with the eye of an avid collector.
Its funny how we sometimes take for granted the local "greenery", the weeds.
I remember Awanda a couple of years ago bought a milkweed plant and was very excited by it. I pass them on the side of the road on my walk to the commuter train. Milkweeds have always been around because that's what the Monarch butterflies feed on in the summer.
My brother showed up at my house excited one day last fall. He had taken a picture of some flowers and he was sure they were hoyas - they were milkweed flowers. I'd made him look at so many hoyas that were in bloom that he recognized the flowering manner of the milkweed and associated it to hoyas. Clever fellow my brother.
Christine
The first photo shows flowers starting to form on the umbel, but I won't be back there to take photos of the open flowers.
Although I did bring some pieces back, a few days in a backpack, a few days in a hotel room in Cairns in some damp sphagnum, a week long hot drive through the Gulf Country back to the Northern Territory. And when I opened the plastic bag up there were some new roots forming on some of the stems.
So hopefully in time I'll be able to post some photos of flowers and get a positive ID.
This Hoya is taking off fast now. There's 4 new shoots coming up, though most of the leaves you can see are still the original old ones. No sign of any peduncles.
It's been hung up on the 'Hoya rack' getting automatic watering once every 3 days like the others.
This Hoya I picked up in the bush has really put on some fast growth over the past couple of weeks. There's a number of stems sprouting up so it's going to be a bushy specimen.
However, if you look carefully at the stem on the left of the photo you'll see the leaves are alternate rather than opposite. Now I'm sure this is breaking the rules for Hoya growth.
A bit closer up of the stem with the alternate leaves. It looks very healthy. I've given the plant weak fish emulsion plus under strength trace elements.
Just an update on how this "captive" Hoya is growing. Definitely looking very healthy. I still believe it's H. australis ssp tenuipes.
There was a person on the Hoya Forum looking to ID a plant everyone thought was H. subquintuplinervis and it looks just like your H. australis ssp. sanae....!!!! Mystery solved. Now I can't find her post!!!!
Carol, you're not telling me that this is H. australis ssp sanae are you?????? Just when I've convinced myself it's H. australis ssp tenuipes. 8O(
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.
A hoya species if determinned by its flower, its reproductive parts. Hoya growth does very a lot due to light levels. More light, closer leaves, different color. More water, softer leaves, less water, more succulent leaves. Also leaves can be quite different the same plant sometimes owing to nothing other than the plants growth habit. But, the actual structure of the leaves will always have the same traits. Plants very a litle sometimes in variagation and size, due to how the plant is fed. A hoya growing in a house can be quite different looking to one in the wild...but the flowers will always have the same reproductive shapes
Those two plants are in very different conditions. The first is well back from the beach, perhaps a kilometre or so. It's under a high tree canopy and not far from a small waterfall. So it gets a lot of shade plus some humidity from the creek/waterfall. The other plant is right on the low cliffs on the shoreline, out in the sun most of the day and subject to some salt spray. It was also late in the dry season so negligible rain for some time. The roots are just in cracks in the rock. But it was an assumption on my part that they're the same species, due to them being virtually in the same geographical place.
What amazes me, however, is that the cutting I brought home sprouted one stem which has alternate leaves whilst the rest of its stems have the normal opposite leaves.
If you have a look at my Hoya australis ssp rupicola thread you'll see some variation in the leaves there as well.
TB..I was mistaken. The photo posted by atisch suddenly looked like H. australis ssp. sanae...but the flowers are not....
There is a clone of H. pachyclada some in Sweden have which is very much like the photo of atisch... But not seeing a leaf shape other than on the stem makes it hard to identify. Is the margin really as dark as it appears in the photo? I am having this same discussion with Ted Green....
Atisch...yes, growth habits can be greatly influenced by environment...even leaf size and to a minor extent the shape...