''Hoya meliflua'' is a species of vine in the Apocynaceae family. It is endemic to the Philippines. The vine is common to Apayao,

La Union La Union (), officially the Province of La Union ( ilo, Probinsia ti La Union; Kankanaey'': Probinsyan di La Union;'' Ibaloi'': Probinsya ne La Union;'' pag, Luyag/Probinsia na La Union; Tagalog'': Lalawigan ng La Union),'' is a province in th ...

Rizal Rizal, officially the Province of Rizal ( fil, Lalawigan ng Rizal), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region in Luzon. Its capital is the city of Antipolo. It is about east of Manila. The p ...

, Bataan,

Laguna Laguna (Italian and Spanish for lagoon) may refer to: People * Abe Laguna (born 1992), American DJ known as Ookay * Andrés Laguna (1499–1559), Spanish physician, pharmacologist, and botanist * Ana Laguna (born 1955), Spanish-Swedish ballet d ...

, Mindoro, Palawan,

Negros Negros is the fourth largest and third most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of . Negros is one of the many islands of the Visayas, in the central part of the country. The predominant inhabitants of the island region a ...

Panay Panay is the sixth-largest and fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of and has a total population of 4,542,926 as of 2020 census. Panay comprises 4.4 percent of the entire population of the country. The City o ...

, and Leyte.

Description

''Hoya meliflua'' has stiff succulent leaves with a very clean look to them with no venation. The flowers are reddish orange and have nectaries near the base of the central column from which a dark sap is produced that stains very easily. In fact, its name is derived from the word "mellis" meaning honeydew and the word "fluo" meaning flow, referring to the dark nectar of the plant that stains the flowers. The plant flowers in June in the Philippines and each flower cluster comes with 10-20 flowers. ;Subspecies There is also a subspecies, ''Hoya meliflua'' ssp. ''fraterna'', that has longer, narrower leaves.

Discovery

''Hoya meliflua'' was first described in 1837 by Francisco Manuel Blanco, who mistakenly identified it as a '' Stapelia''. He called it ''Stapelia meliflua''. ''Hoya meliflua'' was originally found on the island of Luzon and so it was given the synonym ''Hoya luzonica'' by Rudolf Schlechter in 1905. Elmer Drew Merrill subsequently identified it as a ''Hoya'', not ''Stapelia'', and published it in Sp. Blancoanae 318 (1918) naming it ''Hoya meliflua''. There are several other synonyms for ''Hoya meliflua'' including ''Hoya carnosa'' named by Blanco in 1845, ''Hoya diversifolia'' by Fernandez in 1880, and ''Hoya parasitica'' by Fernandez in 1880. These synonyms were found to be invalid under Article 53.1 of international nomenclature. Hoya meliflua is very similar to ''Hoya fraterna'' and is sometimes called 'the little fraterna'. Image:Meliflua2.jpg

References

Sources

*Species Blancoanae: A critical revision of the Philippine species of plants described by Blanco and Llanos, Bureau of Science, Published in Manila, p. 318 (1918

*Worse, Perkins Fragm flora Philippinae p. 130 (1905) *Kloppenburg and Ann D. Wayman, The Hoya Handbook (A Guide for the Grower & Collecter) 1992, p. 79 *Malesiana Bulletin Vol Flora (6) October 1995, article by Ted Green - H. meliflua Merrill ssp. Meliflua Merrill SSP. fraterna Green ssp. Fraterna Green SSP. nova Nova *Reprinted in Fraterna 1 (1995), 2 (1995) and 9 (1995) *Focke Albers, Ulli Meve succulents lexicon Volume 3 p. 156 (2002) *The World of Hoyas - a pictorial guide of D. Kloppenburg (1999) p. 154 short description and photo of 155 S. Ann Wayman *Information Bulletin No. 237/2005 of the Department of Science and Technology Las Banos Philippines, Philippine Hoyas from Simeona V. Siar, p. 10 Hoya, meliflua Endemic flora of the Philippines Flora of Luzon Flora of Palawan Flora of the Philippines Flora of the Visayas Vines Taxa named by Francisco Manuel Blanco meliflua Blanco {{Apocynaceae-stub