http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/82662/
Shouldn't that be removed from PF?
Hoya affinis???
Come on, hoyaheads....affinis can't possibly be a Hoya species, can it?
I'm not too proud to ask!
Nan, I can't tell you for sure because I don't know, but in searching it out, I found this page. http://www.plantsystematics.org/taxpage/0/genus/Hoya.html Go to the drop-down box and it lists Hoya affinis but there is no image. HTH
Barb
RainGazer
Sep 11, 2008
Nan, I don't know much at all about Hoyas, but I did find these by doing a Google search.
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=hoya+affinis&m=text
http://www.myhoyas.com/Hoya%20affinis.htm
http://www.logees.com/prodinfo.asp?number=R1354-2
Thanks! As in every day...learned something new!
It just seems that usually 'descriptive' words have a suffix added when they're used to name a species, in any plant genus.
Example: hirsute becomes hirsuta, linear becomes linearis, etc...
But I see while researching this, that other plants have species named affinis, too!
HI...didn't post this before, Nan, because I have had a big muddle about H. affinis, H. sussuela and H. guppyi: all Eriostemmas and all red!! Got the answer from DL last night... This is H. affinis. I believe it is called H. affinis because it was found 'near' another one....
Nice blooms!
lol...found 'near' another one!
So does that mean 'they' are not even sure it's a hoya?
Or...that it's simply 'like' a hoya in general, or like other eriostemmas? Or...???
No big deal....it's just got me quite curious.
Nan...I have no clue why it is called H. affinis. It is an Eriostemma and it IS a Hoya.
Hey Guys,
Does this help - Botanary: affinis Meaning: Related, similar
Ciao, KK.
The problem is that "affinis" normally used in conjunction with another hoya (or whatever other plant) name, as in hoya macgillivray aff lacunosa (does't exist, slow down those pulses). Why it was called just Hoya affinis, is the puzzle here, and why Nan questioned it in the first place.
Christine
Could be because it was found close to another hoya in the same collection. I will ask Ted...let you know....
Christin, I was wondering same thing why it was called just Hoya affinis.
Jan
This message was edited Sep 12, 2008 6:24 AM
OK,
I understand the cause of the confusion now. (I wasn't making the connection between aff. and affinis becuase I always read aff. in my head as "affiliated to" I did some checking and found -
(from The International Plant Names Index - AKA IPNI)
Asclepiadaceae Hoya affinis Hemsl.
Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew (1892) 126; Oliver, in Hook. Icon. pl. xxiii. (1892) t. 2247 B.
basionym of: Asclepiadaceae Eriostemma affinis (Hemsl.) Kloppenb. & Gilding in Fraterna 14(2): 4 (2001).
Notice the date of the species publication - In 1892 I don't think the use of the term aff, was as common in Hoya circles as it is now - for one thing there were a lot fewer Hoyas known to exist back then! If you wanted William Hemsley's actual REASON for calling it Hoya affinis you would have to read his publication notes in the Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, Royal Gardens, Kew. for 1892 or the Hooker's Icones Plantarum for 1892. Either way, the original description will almost certainly be in Latin, so you would need a translation as well.
This actually illustrates one of the pitfalls of plant naming quite well - do you go for a description of some kind, or do you commemorate someone or a place name or whatever. If you found the world's first red flowered Hoya and called it Hoya rubra, then you get another one and call it Hoya rubriflora and another one and call it Hoya rubrapetala (I AM making these up on the spot, by the way). Anyway, after a while, in a big genus of plants, you start to run out of ways to say "The Hoya with red flowers" in Latin and you start naming plants after the places you found them, famous botanists, people you work with etc. so you get names like H. thailandica, H. philippinensis, H. macgillivrayi, H liddlei (Hi, David) or H. carolii (HI, Carol) and so on and so forth. (STILL making at least SOME of them up, LOL!) As far as I know there are NO major prohibitions about what you SHOULD call a plant only that you can't duplicate what has gone before. As a result, as we all know from experience there are some real doozys of names out there - Hoya aeschynanthoides anybody, or how about Hoya cochinchinensis or the always easy to spell (and remember) Hoya tjadasmalangensis?
If you are curious, and want to see just how many Hoya name there are, you can click on this link http://www.ipni.org/ipni/advPlantNameSearch.do?find_family=&find_genus=Hoya&find_species=*&find_infrafamily=&find_infragenus=&find_infraspecies=&find_authorAbbrev=&find_includePublicationAuthors=on&find_includePublicationAuthors=off&find_includeBasionymAuthors=on&find_includeBasionymAuthors=off&find_publicationTitle=&find_isAPNIRecord=on&find_isAPNIRecord=false&find_isGCIRecord=on&find_isGCIRecord=false&find_isIKRecord=on&find_isIKRecord=false&find_rankToReturn=all&output_format=normal&find_sortByFamily=on&find_sortByFamily=off&query_type=by_query&back_page=plantsearch but, bear in mind that this lists ONLY the NAMED ones, and there are likely yet more out there to be found!
TTFN, KK.
Nan's question made sense to me. If Affinis means related or similar why is it listed in Plant Files as a species hoya, or am I just confused about the PF listing? If that is not a species hoya shouldn't that PF listing be removed? I am a real novice with these plants and all the scientific terms get very confusing to me.
KK: Thank you for your explanation. I think I am understanding a little better .... that there can be any number of Hoya's listed as Hoya affinis?
I have a hoya I received in trade labeled Hoya aff. finlaysonii, so I'm assuming that means it is related to the original (whichever that is) H. finlaysonii or I guess looks similar to it. I can see how over time things can really get jumbled with folks cross propagating (is that the proper term?) and coming up with new plants ... sure can make a mess of things if they are not keeping names/labels straight.
edited to say: Don't mind me, doesn't take much to confuse my brain! I have been googling, lurking and reading and found Ted Green's site and a photo of a really beautiful Hoya affinis (scroll down this page): http://www.rare-hoyas.com/Catalog.htm
This message was edited Sep 13, 2008 11:59 AM
Hi Lin,
No there can only be one Hoya affinis (actual Botanical Name) but there can be any number of Hoya aff. (Insert other Hoya name which this not yet named plant resembles here).
Hope this helps, KK.
'affinis' means 'close to, similar' as well. H. affinis was found in the same area(S. Solomons) as H. guppyi - and is rather similar to it (or it was to the collector). Even in Latin words can mean different things and can be used differently...but they mean the same thing....
I sure do appreciate you all taking the time to explain things to this ole' brain of mine! LOL. I think I am understanding a bit better.
I've been googling and got sidetracked by the beautiful hoya photo's and descriptions at Green Plant Research website! ... my "wish" list is getting longer and longer. ^_^
Cool,
Carol, that was the two bits of info I didn't have (WHERE it was fournd and WHAT it was similar to). It would be great if someone could post a picture (or pictures) of H. affinis on this thread so we could all see what we are talking about. Then, after that, some one could post H. guppyi and we could all make the comparison directly.
Just a thought, KK.
PS a pic for the Plant Files entry would be nice as well.
Ditto to what KK just said!
I did find a picture at this website: http://www.rare-hoyas.com/Catalog.htm - shows a photo of a beautiful H. affinis with a huge seedpod! I love the color of that flower!
HI...I did post a picture of H. affinis earlier in this thread....
Ooops ... Sorry Carol! I did see that gorgeous flower up there ... see what I mean about my ole' brain? I swear I get worse every year ... can't remember something 5 minutes after someone tells me, and it looks like I don't even remember what I saw earlier in the day ... and your beautiful hoya photo was just a couple of posts up!
I think I need to see the Wizard for a new brain.
Also put another on the September Blooms...different shot.
No worries...happens to me all the time.
Hi All,
I must confess I'd forgotten about that photo too - I keep going "Skip to New" instead of scrolling down the thread so I was only reading the most recent post each time I checked in. Can I be greedy and ask for pictures here of the H. affinis leaves, and also H. guppyi flowers and leaves?
Ciao, KK.
LOL ... I am so bad, this morning I was reading the paper, got up to go let one of the cats out into the pooll area, decided to walk out into the backyard to look at an orchid cactus that had bloomed last night, came back, poured another cup of tea, sat down to read more of the Sunday paper, couldn't find my glasses ... searched everywhere ... retraced my steps ... looked under the chair thinking maybe they had fallen when I stood up ... did you guess yet?
Yep ... they were pushed up on top of my head!
Will have to take guppyi today...just have a bad picture.
I guess I 'get it' too (lol!) but I still have to wonder why that name hasn't been 'updated'.....because if affinis means 'like, similar to, etc....then what, exactly was the person who named it H. affinis saying this particular Hoya is 'affinis'(like, similar) TO???
Did he name it H. affinis because he wasn't certain at the time that it was even a Hoya at all, so he called it 'Hoya affinis'...saying it was 'Hoya-like'??
See my burning question? LOL!! (Ü)
So, as Kaelkitty stated...I'd have to read his notes...and I guess I won't go that far to satisfy my curiosity....I just think it's quite strange that he named it that and that he (or his predecessors) have just left it at that all these years.
Thanks for your research, Kaelkitty.....interesting stuff!
I just wish I had William Hemsley's notes 'at my fingertips', and in ENGLISH! (Ü)
Interesting discussion, maybe someday someone else will delve into those reasons!
Like all words, 'affinis' can be used different ways. Many many words in botanical Latin are used to name plants...such as adjectives or adverbs. People's names are used, place names are used. Why can't the word affinis be used? I see it as perfectly logical...
LOL!!
OK...I've just trained myself to say 'like' when I see the word 'affinis' (and I admit I, myself, had only seen it relating to hoyas)
With that in mind, every time I see that name...I think HOYA LIKE, and it just seems to leave a question 'hanging'.
It doesn't matter to me, really....I just thought it was curiously strange!
It's 'like' H. fraterna....fraterna means 'brother'....was named because of it's likeness in leaves to H. coriacea.
Interesting......
Is 'fraterna' used, also as a descriptive word preceding any other Hoya species?
Now when I see that one I'll always think 'brother'! LOL!
Hey, I looked up the Latin descriptions and it looks like it was called "H. affinis" because it is very similar to H. guppyii, like Carol said. Both descriptions start off saying that Hoya affinis is "affinis" Hoya guppyi, but subtly different.
Aha! So shouldn't the PF entry be Hoya aff. guppyi?
This has been very interesting, and I've learned a lot!
Thanks, everyone!
No. It is published as H. affinis so it is H. affinis.
I think the problem is that everyone is trying to make sense out of the name, but it really is not a sensible name. The Latin word "affinis" was chosen for the species name, but that is really not very logical or descriptive. We'll just have to accept that the name is "Hoya affinis", even though it is a dumb name. There isn't any rule against that!
Well said, Mark.