Hoya aldrichii

Hoya aldrichii, commonly known as Christmas Island waxvine,^[2] is a species of flowering plant in the Apocynaceae or dogbane family. It is a vine that is endemic to Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the north-eastern Indian Ocean.

Hoya aldrichii
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Gentianales
Family:	Apocynaceae
Genus:	Hoya
Species:	H. aldrichii
Binomial name
Hoya aldrichii Hemsl.[1]

Description

Hoya aldrichii is a tall climber with glabrous stems and pale bark. The leaves are entire, elliptic, rounded at the base with a pointed tip, 75–150 mm (3.0–5.9 in) long and 35–60 mm (1.4–2.4 in) wide, on a petiole 10–15 mm (0.39–0.59 in) long. The flowers are arranged in umbels of 15–30, on a thicked peduncle 6–10 mm (0.24–0.39 in) long, that increases in length each flowering season, each flower on a glabrous pedicel 20–25 mm (0.79–0.98 in) long. The sepals are 2 mm (0.079 in) long and the petals are pink or white with lobes about 6 mm (0.24 in) long. The corona is pink or deep purplish-pink with star-shaped lobes 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) long and about 1.5 mm (0.059 in) wide. The fruit is a glabrous follicle about 14 mm (0.55 in) long and 5–10 mm (0.20–0.39 in) wide containing oblong seeds about 5 mm (0.20 in) long with a tuft of hairs 20–30 mm (0.79–1.18 in) long on one end.^[2]

Taxonomy

Hoya aldrichii was first formally described in 1890 by William Hemsley in the Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany.^[3][4] The specific epithet honours Pelham Aldrich, commander of the survey vessel HMS Egeria, which visited Christmas Island in 1887.^[2]

Distribution and habitat

This species of Hoya is a common epiphyte in the shrublands of Christmas Island's coastal terraces.^[2]