Stripey lipsticks from Borneo

I obtained this unique lipstick vine from Borneo a few years ago - a cutting from a friend. The short flower with stripped corolla coupled with the shallow dish shaped fused sepals is quite eye catching. It is reported to be common on palm plantations in Sarawak but I have only seen it once growing at a depleted forest. I did witness an impressive display of mass flowering at a private garden, where a dense carpet of this vine cover a trellis over a 3 metre square area sprouting multitudes of red dots along their lengths. There are 2 forms shown here, one with pink and the other with red sepal. Despite its uniqueness, I could only pin it down to be Aeschynanthus tricolor recently The reason is that there is another similar species from Borneo - Aeschynanthus hians. I found Anthony Lamb's article in GardenWise showing rather blurred photographs of both species but all it said was that the difference was in the calyx. I only understood what he meant when I eventually found this curious stripped flowered Aeschynanthus with larger flaring calyx. This would be the A. hians, which is a rarer species confined to northern Sarawak. From these pictures one can see the difference lie in the larger, widely serrated calyx - the flower is similarly stripped.

Hoya campanulata lookalikes part1

Warning: This may be a bit dry for some people .....

There are 2 groups of Hoyas from SE Asia with white, waxy, bell-shaped flowers which has caused confusion amongst growers and taxonomists alike due to their apparent similarities and vendors applying errorneous tags without due diligence. The first is the Hoya campanulata group which appeared widespread in SE Asia and the second are from the wallichii complex which was collected mostly (maybe even exclusively) from Borneo.

Now let us examine the following 3 photos:

Vegetatively and in flower they look so different from other Hoyas and so similar to each other that one can almost be excused for thinking that they are one and the same. Even R.E. Rintz, who published an excellent early paper on Hoyas of Peninsula Malaysia, lumped them into a single species - Hoya campanulata.

Now, let's do some closeups of the corona ....

.... the top most plant has a rather fat and succulent corona (the star-shaped protrusion at the centre of the flower). It had been named Hoya wallichii for a very long time until it was recently deemed to be a separate species - H. danumensis, based on some subtle difference. This plant appeared to be confined to Borneo.

The lower 2 plants have slender corona and are collectively lumped under an umbrella called Hoya campanulata - although as I will show later, there appear to be more than 1 species there. This group has a wider distribution, from Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Java and Sumatra.

And here's a portrait of the real Hoya campanulata from Curtis Botanical Magazine, renown for accurate taxonomic depictions of many exotic plants collected all over the world during 1800s. The picture clearly shows the slender corona similar to the latter 2 plants here. It is taken from Simones' excellent web site.

So hopefully, we got these 2 rather different species sorted out.

I shall end this post by flashing another Borneo native that looked like a H. wallichii (or danumensis, take your pick) by virtue of the fat corona, and yet looked distinct in its smaller flatter corolla that curl backwards as shown below :

Any idea what is this ?

Hoya campanulata lookalikes part2

In this follow up post I will focus on the Hoya campanulata complex. An in-situ photo of the plant is shown above; the vine scrambling on rocks, tree trunks and even on the ground of the forested banks of a jungle stream . Beyond twenty metres or so from the stream, it is nowhere to be found - hence one can deduce that it requires very high humidity.

From my conversation with taxonomists and growers, H. campanulata is quite variable in terms of the colour, size and curvature of the bloom. However, this is not in agreement with David Liddle, who had generously shared with me his knowledge until he unexpectedly passed away. Accordingly to him, there is a smaller form known as H. cysthiantha aff (for affiliate)and another form known as the true campanulata.

By the way, the suffix aff was appended because it was believed that the name Hoya cysthiantha was not validly published. However weeks ago Miss Christine Burton told me that Kew had accepted its validity after all.

As you can see from below, these 2 forms are quite different in terms of size, shape and even colour. The yellowish form at the lower picture is believed to be the real H. campanulata while the white one is believed to be H. cysthiantha aff.
Attached below is the closeup of the corona. The yellowish flower on the left clearly showed a more slender and curved corona.
I shall leave it to the taxonomists to argue over this subject - but for me, they are clearly distinct irregardless of their latin names.

For those who does not care much about all this mumbo jumbo, here are a couple of portraits of the attractive flowers. And did I say they smell like lemon too ?

Giant gesneriads

For most gardeners, giant tree-like plant is not something associated with members of Gesneriad family. Out of the three thousand plus species in this large family, there are actually a quite a few giants that are very little known compared to their smaller cousins.

While scrambling up an open slope on a steep limestone hill in Sarawak, I came across this giant Paraboea - its a man's height even before blooming, its multiple branched inflorescence adding a further metre or so.



I reckon this is either a P. havilandii or the related P. treubii - both of which, according to literature, can be up to 2m high. The spiralling seed pod is characteristic of this genus - the pod builds up internal pressure and eventually implodes with a twisting action that catapult the seeds from mother plant. Note also the retention of dried leaves at the base, the function of which is a mystery.

There are many more examples of giant Gesneriads - like the Brazilian Paliavana , which I found from the excellent web site by Mauro. While visiting one of Europe's botanical gardens, I unexpectedly stumbled upon this striking Jamaican native, - Rhytidophyllum tomentosum, which I know nothing of except that its likely pollinated by bats.
The felty leaves remind me very much of the Henckelia back home but the stiff flowers are quite unique.


I do not think any of these large and drab plants will be popular to gardeners soon unless hybridisers manage to perform some miraculous makeovers. Still, they are interesting botanical curios for me ....