Hi! Does anyone know what Hoya membranifolia looks like, and if it's a valid name?
Fia
Hoya membranifolia
Hi, Fia.
Christine M. Burton was kind enough to provide the answer to your question on another forum. In the interest of brevity, I am quoting only the portion of her discussion that is relevant to your question here:
"Hoya membranifolia was published in Flore Generale Indo-Chine, vol. 4 in 1923 by J. Costantin. He said that the species was native to Laos. Costantin illustrated on a single leaf. There was no flower illustration but his decription of the peduncles and pedicels sounds very like it might be a dischidia, i. e., 2 mm. long peduncles don't sound very hoya-like."
"I have no idea what the plant was that Costantin named and published."
"Leaves are very thin for a hoya or a dischidia, about the same size as Red Buttons leaves, pinnately veined, as if Costantin's illustration is accurate, easily seen."
"The type specimen appears to have been collected by some one named Harmand. Although Harmand's original herbarium is housed at Duke, in NC, he also deposited specimens in most US and European herbaria. I suspect that the type of Hoya membranifolia will be found in Paris... just a hunch. Until someone can locate it there is little more to be said. It is possible that there is an isotype in another herbarium with flowers."
"It is possible that one of us had a true Hoya membranifolia and doesn't know it but the plant distributed as that species during the 1970s and 1980s (and probably still) is not a hoya."
Note: all quotes referenced in this post are from Christine M. Burton at MSN Groups "Hoyas R US" forum under the post titled, "Hoya membranifolia - is there such a hoya?"
As always, Ms. Burton's interest and contributions are invaluable.
Ann
Gosh, Chris is so helpful. I'm always amazed that with the very busy life she has, she has time to moderate her own forum single-handedly and also monitor all of the other forums (especially this one, as she has been kind enough to address three seperate topics from DG on the top five posts on MSN!) so very closely. It is especially gratifying to us in that it must be difficult for her to read all of our posts so thoroughly, as she has pointed out many times that our level of discourse is rather primitive to a well-informed taxonomist as herself. As always, Chris, we are very gratefull!