My Hoya multiflora is in bloom

This time, while I was watering in my growing area, I happened to see that my Hoya multiflora (known in Chinese as 流星毬蘭, "shooting-star hoya") was in flower, so I photographed its open flowers to record them.

I've had Hoya multiflora in my collection for about four or five years. These days I'm just keeping it going, without growing it any particular way. It's actually quite easy to propagate, though: you can propagate it from cuttings. It's also really charming when it flowers.

Its inflorescence looks like a burst of fireworks: an umbel with flowers radiating outwards, which makes you think it's really beautiful the moment you see it. The flowers themselves are quite unusual too, and people seeing it for the first time usually take a second look.

How the flower is built

I looked it up, and the flower of Hoya multiflora actually maps onto the basic structure shared by the genus Hoya: the yellowish-white part with orange tips, swept back, is the corolla; the five pointed yellow lobes projecting forwards are the corona, whose outer angles extend into sharp spurs that rise above the stigma; and right in the centre is the gynostegium, where the stamens and stigma are fused together. Its pollen isn't loose powder but is stuck together into waxy masses called pollinia. A 2024 study comparing the pollinia of 85 Hoya species found the longest pollinium in Hoya multiflora.