I'm no hoya expert, but the leaves on your Hoya don't strike me as carnosa. But, whatever the species, it's beautiful! Congratulations on your flowers, twenty five years is a long time to wait (come to think of it, I'm twenty five...)!

Planto

Congratulations! ~ Mary

This is a picture of a leaf on my left hand - the leaves are longer than my index or middle fingers. Maybe someone can finally clear up for me which Hoya I have!

It looks like my motoskei, same leaf and bloom. It is trying to bloom now and if it does not blast I will post a pix here if you do not mind, to compare.
~ Mary

Congratulations on the Hoya carnosa blooms. That sure was a long wait. When you have those beautiful dark green leaves on Hoya carnosa it means that the plant needs more light if you want it to bloom well. A medium green is a better indication of proper light levels.

I attached a link to an article by Christine Burton about Hoya carnosa. I did mention Hoya motoskei in a recent thread but it is in fact a name synonymous with Hoya carnosa.

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: Hoya carnosa

I read this too and decided to keep the label with it of motoskei!!

I'm confused, why keep the name Hoya motoskei?

Mike

I was going with her ending statements of preserving a name that was on it and leaving it at that instead of anything else, just did not see harm in it that is all. ~ Mary

Mary you are right, it's ok to keep the name a plant came with but when the name is no longer the accepted name of that species then it is best to use the currently accepted name.

There is a great page on Hoya carnosa on Simones Hoyas. You can use Google Translate to translate the page from German to English. Go to Hoya Arten and use the drop down tab to choose Hoya carnosa. There is a list of the names that are now synonyms of Hoya carnosa.

http://www.simones-hoyas.de/

The link I posted talks about Botanical names and their synonyms and how this all works when applied to Taxonomy and Nomenclature.

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: Synonymy in the context of Botanical Nomenclature

Wow, lots of information! I shall slowly conform! Thanks Mike!
~ Mary

Thanks for taking the time to lay this all out, Mike. So, in this case, would you say it would be appropriate to label the plant Hoya carnosa (syn. motoskei), since the name motoskei is still commonly bandied about Hoya circles? Or would you just go for a straight up Hoya carnosa label?

I was thinking that a lot of the time people are reluctant to change their labels when one species is sunk into another (for any reason), because either it makes it harder to articulate that they have two differentiable plants (with the same name), or because others are using the old name to search for the plant (e.g. people look for plants labeled motoskei because the leaves are allegedly larger and rounder).

Still, it's possible to label your plants accurately and still reference its former identity. That helps guide others through the transition. (e.g. Hoya stoneana, form. longifolia pubescens; Hoya tsangii, form. odetteae) Maybe then people will feel easier about plunging forward with new tags.

On the other hand, it seems to me that not all the plants that are given the label motoskei are even the collection of carnosa that people associate with this name. I see all the time new members posting a picture of a "mystery carnosa," feeling certain that it is different from the other carnosa they have, and concluding, after a Google search, that it is this "motoskei" plant. Then we end up with a variety of carnosas that are tagged this way, and the name doesn't have any value. That side of things puts me more in favor of a straightforward Hoya carnosa label.

Obviously, I'm just thinking aloud here. :P After reading what I've written, one can only conclude that I have "all of the opinions."

That is totally acceptable, to note a synonym of a species on the name tag. Mostly listing of synonyms is done when referring to a species in a piece of botanical literature, a paper or article. In horticulture I would say it is more important to know the current name and then be familiar with the most commonly used synonyms. Many names that are now synonyms are very old and not in use anymore anyways.

Take a look at the link I provided. This is an orchid page but it's just easier to use because all the really thorough Hoya sites are in other languages. Notice how the synonyms are listed, written in the proper way with the names of the person/people who originally published the plant under that name and the year of publication. Ideally the name of the publication the species was published in should also appear so that anyone interested can reference the original publication. This is all very important to understanding where the names came from and how we have arrived at the currently accepted name. Many times plants are described by more than one person/people under multiple names and this can be spread apart by years, decades, or longer. Many plants are initially lumped into Genera that they actually do not belong in and through the years as more research is done species get moved around and corrections made.

The tuff part is that like you mentioned above there are often multiple names that are associated with one plant. Hoya stoneana and Hoya longifolia are two separate and unique species but there has been confusion between them. Their names are not synonymous and their association is a different kind of mistake altogether. The Hoya tsangii and Hoya odetteae reference is however a good example of a synonym (odetteae) and the currently accepted species name.

On the topic of the name Hoya motoskei. I think too many people get caught up on leaf colour. Leaf colour has nothing to do with species identification and a dark leafed Hoya carnosa is simply that and not another species. Environmental factors are obviously strong factors but so are genetics. Plants grown from seed are individuals and just like I have brown hair and my sister has red hair, we can show a range of characteristics and still be the same species.

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: Bulbophyllum auratum - Synonyms

Wow, so much information. Thank you for all the wonderful information.

My carnosa is in a large bay window that gets full morning sun for 5-6 hours each morning, so it would be really hard to give it more light without frying it. It remains with dark leaves with handsome silver splotches on them, as shown in the picture of the one in my hand, but there are also leaves that are a brighter/lighter green. The leaves are large, some are huge and take the whole length of my hand, but most are averaging 5-6 inches in length and a good 2-3 inches wide. It is really starting to come into bloom now with 3 active bloom clusters and at least 4-5 more starting. A few blooms are on older, existing stems with leaves, but most are on newly sprouted stems that have yet to leaf out. Each blossom cluster spreads out to at least 4-5 inches wide. Just beautiful. So the plant seems to be happy. I'm just happy that it's happy. :) It made the wait worthwhile.

@ Mike

Yeah, I know the stoneana and 'pubescent longifolia' is a different kind of scenario. You're right, I am probably adding to the confusion by referencing it.

Mostly, I just wanted to point out that people have the option to update their labels to the correct name, without discarding references that might be useful to people who haven't caught up to the current consensus. Although it might not be the most elegant or formal of practice, it can help us all get on the same page as each other during the transition.

That orchid page was a nice example, thanks. You're right, we don't often see Hoya identifications written out as thoroughly.

@ ssuarkc

Yeah, a picture of a single leaf can be misleading. Glad your plant is blooming well and happy. I hope you never have to wait on it again!