Plant of the Month

Plant of the Month: March 2020

Wax Plant

Hoya carnosa

APOCYNACEÆ; Dogbane Family

A very well known, world famous houseplant, is Hoya carnosa. It is beautiful, tough and easy to keep alive. So, here are a few words about it.

All 250 Hoya species hail from the same area originally. That is, tropical IndoMalaysia, SE Asia and Oceania. They are frost-tender, subshrubs or succulent vines, mostly epiphytic on trees. Most species have white sap. Their leaves are opposite. Flowers come in many colors, borne in rounded heads recalling little umbrellas. Both the leaves and flowers vary in size from tiny to large.

The common Wax Plant is also called Wax Flower or Wax Vine, Honey Plant, and Porcelain Flower. Named in 1810, it is native to China, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam montane forests. Its leaves, even without flowers, are ornamental, being a healthy glossy dark green with pale little speckles. The waxy white flowers offer delicate fragrance, beauty, and sweet nectar to taste. The flowers come from perennial spurs, that ought not be deadheaded because they repeat bloom. It flowers better if potbound. Since it is a vine, it will climb to 20 feet, or flop and sprawl if kept in a hanging basket. Cultivars exist, including Compacta, Crispa, Crispa Variegata, Exotica, Krinkle Curl (Hindu Rope Plant, Indian Rope), Picta, Rubra, Tricolor, and Variegata.

The plant is propagated by cuttings. One April 6th, I snipped off a piece from a large Hoya plant. I left the piece untouched by a northeast window until August 1st --17 weeks later-- and then put it into soil with water. By October, it had new growth visible. It is a well established plant now.

Each March or April, my plants put on big flushes of new growth. They make so much growth that I eat some of their leaves as cooked vegetables. Hoya has no known toxicity. The raw leaves taste bitter as dandelion leaves. The tender young leaves, if cooked briefly, can retain some unpleasant acridity. So I boil them in with my pasta, and mix plenty of olive oil and spices, as well as other vegetables, to make a pleasing meal.

Over 30 other Hoya species have been sold as houseplants over the decades, and some are as good or better. It's just that momentum favors the well known, common one. I have tasted the raw leaves of a few other species, and found the flavor varies from acid to bland to foul.

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