michell, do you still have some hoyas? i'd love your compacta for lacunosa, mine is small leafed. plmk,thanks ahead,molly

I agree with Kelly's assessment that it is tenuipes. According to CB, the main differences are: Hoya australis subsp. australis has smaller leaves, which are covered on both sides with "fuzz." Hoya australis subsp. tenuipes has larger shiny, completely bald leaves. Hoya australis subsp. australis flowers in autumn in US, when it condescends to bloom at all, which is rarely. Hoya australis subsp. tenuipes blooms from very early spring until very early summer in the US and it blooms profusely. The original article is below. Watch out, it's a bit peppery! ^_^ Here is a link that might be useful: Australis ssp. australis vs Australis ssp. tenuipes

When I first saw it, I was surprised. It starts out this reddish or bronze-y pink and slowly turns green. In the pic the leaf is in the process of turning green, but it takes its time, so you get to enjoy it for a while. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that leaf is no longer with me. I had some great growth when I first got it, and then negative growth. Basically, I'm back where I started, minus a leaf but plus a bit of vine. Keeping my fingers crossed that the new nubbins of growth are the start of good things to come. I think it is sensitive to cold, and it was close to my window over the winter. Whoops, didn't know better. It's on a list of hoyas that don't want to get any colder than 70F on one site, and another says no lower than 17C (about 63F). So it really wants to stay warm. My australis did have some cute little reddish leaves on its new growth. Red tipped with green. It very quickly turned all green though. It was a fair distance away from my window at the time. Now it is on my shelf, south facing window but behind a kerrii. Hope it likes it there.

lol Oh dear. Your climate terrifies me. It's supposed to get up to 33C here tomorrow and I am displeased b/c I can't function when I'm hot. I prefer to be around 17C all the time lol. I guess it's possible that carnosa doesn't admire your equatorial climate, since it's one of those Hoyas with a greater tolerance for cool temperatures. As always, yours are very interesting observations. Well, the 500 trees are burr oaks, white oaks, black oaks, sugar maples, sycamores, black walnuts, white spruce, and various small flowering trees like wild plum, dogwood and chokecherry. I guess you could count the plum, chokecherry, and walnuts as edibles... But really I am starting the process of reforesting the pastures surrounding my yard. A few years back we had a very bad hail storm that broke every window in the house and completely defoliated and injured the surrounding trees. They are still alive, but their lives have been dramatically shortened. It also happens that the majority of them are Ash trees, and my county has already reported sightings of the Ash bore, so they will all be dead soon. :\ Annnd I'm starting my winter weather windbreaks, while I'm at it, but that won't get done this year. Since you ask, though, I did also plant a small orchard of 22 proper fruit trees. ;) I wasn't including all my 'fun trees' in my count.