This beautiful plant is still the most cultivated Hoya, 174 years after it was first collected by a European. Since the naming of the genus Hoya more than a hundred Hoya species have been made available for the amateur grower, out of 520 species now known. Other species of Hoya may be more spectacular but this one is beautiful, delightfully fragrant, compact and relatively easy to grow.
First European encounter
Distribution
The genus Hoya
Introduction to Britain
Thomas Lobb
Waxflower
Flower structure
References
General description
The individual flowers are about 1.8cm (just under ¾ inch) in diameter. The fragrance is particularly strong during the evening.
It has a similarity to the jasmine-like fragrance of Stephanotis, though with nuances. I think those nuances of the odour are like the flowers of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) or the flowers of saffron crocus (Crocus sativus). I know that comparison is not going to be helpful to the majority of houseplant owners.
Some descriptions liken the fragrance to vanilla. I can't smell that, though it is very much the sort of sweet fragrance that would be delicious in ice cream or chocolate. Though some parts of Hoya bella are likely to be toxic, as are many of the other Hoya species.
I have not found any analyses of the fragrance and no vendor selling the essential oil of Hoya bella.
Hoya bella has occasionally been grafted onto rootstock of larger Hoyas to produce a larger, stronger plant since 1857. However, most people appreciate the fact that this plant is small enough to fit in an ordinary house or office.
It is very easy to multiply by cuttings. The new plants can flower within a year, if treated well. They are best with multiple plants in one hanging basket. They want light but not too much. Best hung near a window but out of direct sunlight.
Hoya bella prefers humid, warm conditions with constant moisture at the roots. Though, if it gets cold you do not want the roots to be wet. In its native habitat, Hoya bella is an epiphyte. An epiphyte lives on top of other plants. It is not a parasite. It takes no nourishment from the plant it lives on, only support. Hoya bella grows with its roots tucked into pockets of composted vegetable matter lodged into the nooks and crannies of old tree branches.
The plant has been called Hoya lanceolata ssp. bella as some botanists thought that Hoya bella is a variety of the closely related Hoya lanceolata. Happily, Kew Gardens have Hoya bella as the current valid name of the plant on their Plants of the World Online database.⁹
Hoya bella has to be the second easiest botanical name to remember for a houseplant - after Aloe vera.
First European encounter
The First Anglo-Burmese War lasted from 1824 to 1826. The British spent an immense amount of money and 15,000 lives of their European and Indian soldiers. It was the most expensive war the British Indian Imperial government had fought. Defeat forced the Burmese to cede some of their territories to the British and to sign a trade treaty. In 1826, Mawlamyine was made the first capital of British Burma.
Cornish botanist Thomas Lobb was travelling as a plant collector on behalf of Messrs. Veitch & Sons of Exeter. Thomas collected exotic plants from 1843 to 1860. Thomas was following in the path of his brother, William Lobb. Both had trained as practical gardeners. William collected from all over the world as well, from 1840 to 1857.
The Veitch nursery was among the largest and most prestigious in Britain. In 1853 they took over the famous nursery of Knight's on King's Road in Chelsea, London and became the Exeter and Chelsea Exotic Nurseries.
In 1846, Thomas Lobb reported that he had collected Hoya bella from Kola Mountain in Burma (now called Myanmar), while visiting Mawlamyine. I can't find any reference online to the present location of that mountain. Online maps of Myanmar are not very helpful, with fewer details than you might find in maps of less militaristic nations. It does not help that transliteration of words from Burmese to English script has changed a lot in the last few centuries.
I think Taung Kola or Kola Mountain may be the Kalwi hill. This small hill of about 2½ km by 1 km (1½ by ⅝ miles) is at the north end of Bilu Kyun (Burmese for "ogre island") in the estuary of the Salween River, across the river and about 9 km (5⅝ miles) west from Mawlamyine. The towns of Kalwi and Munaing are on the flanks of the hill. I can't find an altitude for the peak of the hill, but it does not look very steep. From the satellite image on Google Maps, the hill still looks well-covered in trees.
The British Burma Gazetteer of 1879 described⁷ the village:
KA-LWEE.—A village in the circle of the same name in the Amherst [Kyaikkhami] district in the extreme north of Bhee-loo-gywon [Bilu Kyun] on the bank of the Daray-bouk or northern mouth of the Salween, lying on the side of a detached hill connected with the main Bhee-loo-gywon range by a road across the rice plain. In 1860 it had 931 inhabitants and 1,138 in 1876. The neighbouring picturesquely situated pagodas and zayat, embosomed amongst trees and overlooking the Salween river, are a favourite resort of the European inhabitants of Maulmain.
Lobb collected many other plants around Mawlamyine including three species of Begonia, a Lobelia and an Impatiens. He found the tree Saraca lobbiana of the bean family at the foot of Mount Kola. He also found the rather spectacular little ericaceous epiphyte Thibaudia macrantha (now called Agapetes macrantha) on Kola Mountain. He found the plants now called Agapetes bracteata and Agapetes lobbii on another island near Mawlamyine called Thoung-gyun. The herbarium specimens can be seen on the Kew Herbarium website.¹¹
Distribution
In 2003, the distribution of Hoya bella within Myanmar was given as Mon and Taninthayi.¹² Mon State includes Mawlamyine and follows the coast southwards until it borders Tanintha(r)yi Region. Tanintharyi Region is the southernmost region of Myanmar, a narrow strip between the western coast and Thailand to the east.
In 1974, Kai Larsen collected two specimens that have been identified as Hoya bella from Doi Inthanon National Park in Chiang Mai Province in Thailand. Doi Inthanon National Park is in the far northwest of Thailand, near the border with Myanmar. This plant was found about 240 km (150 miles) northeast from Mawlamyine.¹³
The Herbarium of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris has an example of one of the two specimen sheets prepared by Larsen.²⁸ They have that specimen determined to be Hoya engleriana in 2009. Hoya engleriana is a lookalike of Hoya bella mentioned by the 2018 Handbook of Asclepiads of Thailand as being found²⁷ in that part of Northwestern Thailand, though also known from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.⁹
Hoya vaccinioides is another very similar plant that could be mistaken for Hoya bella. Hoya vaccinioides is found in Myanmar and Thailand²⁷ according to the Handbook but not according to Kew's Plants of the World Online, which just gives it as occurring in the East Himalayas, Laos and Vietnam. However, the Handbook considers Hoya weebella and Hoya dickasoniana to be synonyms of Hoya vaccinioides and POWO does have those as found only in Thailand and Myanmar, respectively.⁹ Hoya weebella was named because it looked like a small Hoya bella, "wee" as in the Scottish word for small. Not very conventional for a botanical name.
Hoya chinghungensis is another lookalike mentioned by the Handbook as being found²⁷ in that part of Northwestern Thailand, though known before from Myanmar, China, Laos and Vietnam.
Neither Hoya bella nor Hoya lanceolata occur in Thailand²⁷ according to the Handbook.
The Kew Gardens Plants of the World Online⁹ has Manipur in NE India as another location where the plant has been found but does not recognise Thailand as a native region.
The closely-related Hoya lanceolata has been reported as found in Nepal, NE India (including Manipur?), Myanmar, N Thailand and NW Vietnam.⁴ There has been some confusion between specimens of Hoya bella and Hoya lanceolata, as well as the other similar species which I mentioned above. So, Hoya lanceolata may have a narrower range than that.
I am inclined to believe that Hoya bella may only occur in Myanmar, until I find someone who knows more about that supposed example from Manipur.
There is now some effort being put into a new Flora of Myanmar. However, the awful political situation has hampered foreign scientific cooperation in Myanmar since the military coup in 1962.
The genus Hoya
The plant Lobb collected was recognised as a member of the genus Hoya. Hoya had been coined in 1811 by Robert Brown in the same article in which he coined the family Asclepiadeae. Brown wrote that Hoya was named for a gardener called Thomas Hoy "whose merits as an intelligent and successful cultivator, have been long known to the cultivators of this country." Brown only knew of two species at that time, Hoya carnosa and Hoya volubilis.⁵
Hoya carnosa is still known by that name. Kew Gardens introduced the plant to England in 1802, when it was still called Asclepias carnosa. Mrs Barrington of Mongewell, Oxfordshire seems to have obtained a plant at the same time. Hers was the first to flower.²¹
Hoya volubilis was later moved to Dregea and Marsdenia but has now settled as Wattakakka volubilis,¹⁰ from the plant's name Wattakakka-k-koti in the Indian language Malayalam. I am pretty sure botanists chose it just because that name sounds coolest.
Introduction to Britain
There were 422 plants featured in Curtis's Botanical Magazine that were collected, grown and introduced into trade by the Veitch nursery between 1842 and 1906. These started with Table 3934 (Gloxinia speciosa) and finished with Table 8064 (Lonicera tragophylla). So, they provided an average of more than 6 new introductions per year that were remarkable enough to be included in Curtis's Botanical Magazine. About 10% of the featured new species over 64 years.²⁴
The specific name bella is, of course, a Latin feminine word for beautiful. The same word is still used in modern Italian and Spanish. William Hooker of Kew Botanical Gardens named and described the plant in Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1848:
The most lovely of all the Hoyas, to which a figure (as in the case of most flowers with much white) is little calculated to do justice. It cannot be called a climber, but the branches are diffuse, copiously leafy, so that the leaves (unlike those in H. carnosa) form a dark back-ground to the delicate umbels of flowers, with leaves in shape resembling those of a Myrtle, and flowers more lively and differently-formed from those of Hoya carnosa, and most deliciously scented. The corolla is a purer white, and the corona a deeper purple: resembling an amethyst set in frosted silver.
Amethysts are found in Myanmar, where they were regarded as a variety of sapphire. They were called "aubergine flower stone" or "aubergine sapphire". The colour of the flowers of the aubergine or egg-plant vary from pale to dark and may be shades of violet, blue or purple. They often have stripes and markings in different hues and shades on one flower, like the variation within amethyst crystals.¹⁵
This description of Hoya bella must have been a delight for the Veitch company. They could not have asked for a better advertisement. They would have been able to demand almost any price from the rich aristocrats and businessmen who followed the fashion of growing the newest exotics. On the 9th of June 1849, Hoya bella was awarded a Certificate of Merit at a show held by the Horticultural Society of London.¹
Veitch and Sons advertised "well-grown plants" in The Gardeners' Chronicle of August 1849, along with five other novelties.²² They quoted Hooker's description in the advert. The plants would be ready for delivery from Monday, September 3rd. The cost (if not getting the trade discount) was 63 shillings per plant. In today's money this would be about £300. Though, if you bought three you got another one for free. They warned that "The earliest orders will have the strongest plants."
By the 4th of May 1850, a nursery in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk called Youell and Co. was selling plants for 7 shillings 6 pence.²⁶ That was less than ⅛ of the price asked by Veitch and Son. Youell and Co. did not say how well-grown the plants were. On the 24th of October 1850, Thomas Appleby (Floricultural Manager of Messrs Henderson, Edgeware-road in London) wrote that "The price for tolerable good plants is 7s. 6d.". He also wrote³ that "As the H[oya]. imperialis is one of the most noble of the noble plants, so this is the prettiest of all the pretty ones."
In their catalogue of indoor plants for 1911, James Veitch & Sons, Ltd. had 6 species of Hoya, including Hoya bella. All the species were priced at 3 shillings and 6 pence. By then James Veitch & Sons, Ltd. had four nurseries in the Southeast of England, at Chelsea, Norbiton, Langley and Feltham.²⁵
Thomas Lobb
Among the places visited by Lobb over his 17 years of plant-collecting were Singapore, Java and the nearby islands, Burma, India, the Malay Peninsula, North Borneo, Labuan and the Philippines.²⁴
In 1850, The Florist and Garden Miscellany published²³ a description of Hoya bella by the Veitch company that ended with an assurance that no plant collectors were harmed in the production of these plants. They stated that William Lobb had explored the Western hemisphere and Thomas had explored the Eastern hemisphere "with but little illness, and without meeting with a single accident, or with any insult or molestation from the natives."
Thomas Lobb suffered an injury in the Philippines¹⁶ in 1860 that led to the amputation of a leg. James Veitch Jr obviously saw himself as an enlightened employer with a duty to avoid discrimination against the disabled, especially when they had made him a considerable fortune. Veitch proposed that he would continue to pay for Lobb to hop around the world and continue plant collecting. Lobb declined.
Lobb retired to the village of Devoran in Cornwall to tend his own garden. Devoran is near the end of Cornwall, just across the River Carnon from his birthplace of Perranarworthal.¹⁶
In Lobb's obituary in the Gardener's Chronicle in 1894, they mentioned that²:
It is a matter of some little interest, that Lobb was staying with the late James Veitch on the occasion of his [Veitch's] sudden death, being the only time he had been induced to quit his Cornish home since the loss of his limb.
Wikipedia suggests that the author Sue Shephard believed that Lobb had contributed to Veitch's death by heart attack while visiting in 1869 due to an argument about Lobb resuming collecting. Lobb's obituary² had implied that the proposal to continue collecting was made closer to 1860. Veitch's obituary in the Gardener's Chronicle gave a different slant¹⁴ on Lobb's visit.
Some two years ago, owing to premonitory symptoms of heart disease, which have proved too well founded, Mr. Veitch ceased to take so active a part as he had been wont, either in horticultural affairs or in matters of business; but latterly he had been in better health and spirits than usual, and even on the day before his decease had greatly enjoyed a visit from his old friend and collector, Thomas Lobb, so that his death on the morning of the 10th inst., at Stanley House, Chelsea, at the age of 54, came suddenly on his family and friends, although, under the circumstances, it can scarcely be said to have been wholly unexpected. ... ... That he himself was not unprepared for the change that was to befal him is shown by the fact that only a few days before his death he selected, without the knowledge of any member of his family, a site for a family grave; ...
I would rather put a happier interpretation on these events. Veitch got heated in trying to persuade Lobb to continue plant-hunting in 1860. They did not speak again until Veitch invited Lobb to visit in 1869. Veitch knew he was dying and wanted to ensure that he healed the rift between them before it was too late. The excitement of that meeting, or just the effort of sitting upright for a while, was enough to carry Veitch off the next day.
Lobb died on the 30th of April 1894. He was in his 70s.
Waxflower
I was excited to find a Burmese vernacular name for Hoya bella - "payaung ban",¹² Rather disappointingly, this name seems to translate as "wax flower". I think this is probably a Burmese translation of the English name. In Burmese script that is probably ဖယောင်း ပန်း.
The garden supplies store G. Thorburn & Son of 67 Liberty Street, New York produced an 84 page Catalogue for 1827. They listed 11 pages of green house plants. For $2 you could buy a Hoya carnosa - "Chinese Splendid Hoya, or Wax Flower".²⁰ Their 1825 catalogue only had the name Chinese Splendid Hoya and charged $3.¹⁹
Thorburn & Son took orders for their customers for "Fruit, Forest and Ornamental Trees, from the Linnæan Garden and Nursery of William Prince, Flushing, ..." That same William Prince of Flushing, New York published a book called A Short Treatise on Horticulture in 1828. He wrote of Hoya carnosa: "It is frequently called the Wax Flower, as it has the appearance of wax-work."¹⁸ Prince had offered Hoya carnosa as the Chinese Splendid Hoya for $5 in 1822.¹⁷
Bartram's Botanic Garden of Kingsessing, four miles from Philadelphia, published a Catalogue in 1828. They had Hoya carnosa for $1. Their English name for the plant was Chinese wax plant.⁶
Flower structure
The cross-section below shows that the purple corona is not as solid as it looks. Though they give the impression of little hard-boiled sweets, a carved lump of candle-wax or polished gems, the lobes of the corona are hollow.
You can also see that the white petals of the corolla have a dense, short velvet covering the entire upper side (or lower side when the flowers are hanging free on the plant). This surface is very optically active, very bright white and so difficult to photograph. Many of my photos came out with flares and glare or ghostly auras. The dense pelt of hairs is also quite difficult to photograph.
References
¹ Anon. "Horticultural Society of London. Exhibition, June 9, 1849. Award of the Judges." Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette (1849) 24: June 16th, p. 370 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32083024#page/377/mode/1up
² Anon. "Thomas Lobb" Gardeners' Chronicle (1894) 3(15): May 19th, p 636 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/83806#page/664/mode/1up
³ Appleby, T "Hothouse Department. Stove Plants." The Cottage Gardener (1851) 5 (October 24th): 50 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/25643812#page/62/mode/1up
⁴ Averyanov, LV et al "Preliminary checklist of Hoya (Asclepiadaceae) in the flora of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam" (2017) Turczaninowia 20(3): 103–147 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320010983_Preliminary_checklist_of_Hoya_Asclepiadaceae_in_the_flora_of_Cambodia_Laos_and_Vietnam
⁵ Brown, R "On the Asclepiadeæ" Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society (1811) 1: 26-27 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/165544#page/64/mode/1up
⁶ Carr, Robert Periodical Catalogue of Fruit and Ornamental Trees and Shrubs, Green House Plants, &c. cultivated and for sale at Bartram's Botanic Garden, Kingsessing, Near Gray's Ferry—Four miles from Philadelphia. (1828, Russell and Martien, Philadelphia) p. 12 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/272761#page/22/mode/1up
⁷ Compiled by Authority The British Burma Gazetteer in two volumes (1879, Government Press, Rangoon) Vol. II, 216 https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.283037/page/n217/mode/2up
⁸ Hooker, W "Hoya bella" Curtis's Botanical Magazine (1848) Table 4402 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/14352#page/217/mode/1up
⁹ Kew Gardens "Hoya bella Hook." Plants of the World Online http://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:98387-1 and related species
¹⁰ Kew Gardens "Wattakaka volubilis (L.f.) Stapf" Plants of the World Online http://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:103061-1
¹¹ Kew Botanic Gardens Herbarium search http://apps.kew.org/herbcat/gotoHomePage.do
¹² Kress, WJ et al "A Checklist of the Trees, Shrubs, Herbs, and Climbers of Myanmar" Contributions from the United States National Herbarium (2003) 45: 155 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/384769#page/166/mode/1up
²⁸ Larsen, K "Hoya engleriana Hosseus" (1974) Collector number 34404 Herbarium sheet: Specimen P00700531, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris (France) Collection: Vascular plants (P) http://coldb.mnhn.fr/catalognumber/mnhn/p/p00700531 Accessed 1/3/2021
¹³ Larsen, K "33404" & "34404" (1974) Tropicos website, Missouri Botanical Garden http://legacy.tropicos.org/Specimen/1086705 http://legacy.tropicos.org/Specimen/1084619
¹⁴ M., T. "The Late James Veitch" Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette (1869) (38): September 18th, p 990 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015065656384&view=1up&seq=1002
¹⁵ Mason, F The Natural Productions of Burmah, or Notes on the Fauna, Flora, and Minerals of the Tenasserim Provinces and the Burman Empire (1850, American Mission Press, Maulmain [Mawlamyine]) p. 20 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/26850#page/46/mode/1up
¹⁶ Natural History Museum "Lobb, Thomas (1820-1894)" JSTOR Global Plants (2013) https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000152427 Accessed 4/10/2020
¹⁷ Prince, William Catalogue of Fruit and Ornamental Trees and Plants, Bulbous Flower Roots, Green-house Plants, &c. &c. 21st Edition (1822, T. and J. Swords, New York) p. 103 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/43890861#page/109/mode/1up
¹⁸ Prince, William A Short Treatise on Horticulture: etc. (1828, T. and J. Swords, New York) p. 194 https://archive.org/details/shorttreatiseonh00prinrich/page/194/mode/2up
¹⁹ Thorburn, G & Son Catalogue of Kitchen Garden, Herb, Flower, Tree and Grass Seeds, Bulbous Flower Roots, &c. &c. &c. (1825) p. 55 https://archive.org/details/catalogueofkitch1825gtho/page/54/mode/2up
²⁷ Thaithong, O et al "Hoya vaccinioides Hook.f." Handbook of Asclepiads of Thailand (2018, Amarin Printing and Publishing, Bangkok) 26-261
²⁰ Thorburn, G & Son Catalogue of Kitchen Garden, Herb, Flower, Tree and Grass Seeds, Bulbous Flower Roots, &c. &c. &c. (1827) p. 56 https://archive.org/details/catalogueofkitch1827gtho/page/56/mode/2up
²¹ Traill, J "Accounts and Descriptions of several Plants belonging to the Genus Hoya, which are cultivated in the Garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick." Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London (1830) 7: 19-22 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/155840#page/44/mode/1up
²² Veitch and Son "New and Rare Plants" Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette (1849) 34: August 25th, p 529 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32083183#page/536/mode/1up
²³ Veitch & Sons "Hoya bella and Mitraria coccinea" The Florist and Garden Miscellany (1850. London) Illustration & 1-2 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/6092124#page/18/mode/1up
²⁴ Veitch, JH Hortus Veitchii (1906, London) https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/196248#page/325/mode/1up
²⁵ Veitch, J & Sons Ltd. Indoor Plants (1911) p. 41 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/208352#page/45/mode/1up
²⁶ Youell and Co. "The Finest Carnations, Picotees, &c. &c." Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette (1850) 18: May 4th, p 273 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32488750#page/281/mode/1up
²⁷ see under Thaithong. Sorry, added after finishing and I could not be bothered to re-number every reference after 20.
²⁸ ditto for Larsen.
