STEEM PLANTS CONTEST Week 10 - Hey Ya Hoya

Hello everyone.

This is week 11 of the Steem Plants Contest hosted by @knopka145. Everyone is invited to join. Learn more about it. Just click on the link here. This contest is getting to be very popular as gauged from the growing number of participants every week. Last week there were 80 entries! Come and join the fun.

This week I joined the Steem-BRU (BY-RU-UA) community. And this is my first post in this growing and popular community. I hope to be a steady and regular contributor here beginning with this Steem Plants Contest. For this 11th week, this is the plant I will feature. I saw it on display in one of the plant and flower markets in our city.

This is one specie of the plant known as Hoya. Hoya is a tropical plant in the dogbane family Apocynaceae. Although hoya isn't difficult to pronounce, you may prefer to call the plants by one of their other common names, including the wax plant, wax flower, Indian rope plant, porcelain flower, shooting star or honey plant. It is usually a climbing or trailing plant with generally thick, shiny, fleshy leaves and clusters of waxy star-shaped flowers.

There are about 200 to 300 species of Hoyas that are native to Asia, Polynesia and Australia. It is popularly grown as a garden plant or house plant, due to its attractive foliage and sometimes scented flowers. Hoyas are found throughout my country, the Philippines, at all altitudes, usually growing on tree trunks and branches. There are about 51 species of Hoya listed in the Philippines and more species may still be discovered. Read more about growing hoyas. Click the link here.

This particular Hoya that looks like a green ponytail is called Dragon Jade.

Picture below is another specie of hoya which is very popular. It is called Hoya Kerii.

It starts with a single heart shaped leaf and eventually grows, creeping upward as vines do and trailing heart shaped leaves along the way. This variety is also called Sweetheart plant or the lovely hearts plant. According to the saleslady it takes about 3 years from a single leaf to grow to the size of the next 2 pictures below.

I'd say it's worth the wait. Here's another Hoya Kerii variety with whitish or yellowish stripes along the side of its leaves instead of a solid green.

Another Hoya specie that is very popular is this one shown in the picture below. It is more commonly known as the Hindu Rope Plant.

These potted Hindu Rope plants are selling for about US$50 apiece. There are, however, smaller ones in pots which are cheaper at about US$10 a pot. See below for the smaller potted ones.

They're a bit expensive but they are worth every cent that you pay for them.

The photo below shows another Hindu Rope plant. This time you can also see the area where the plants are being sold. Note the many Dragon Jade for sale. There's a big Hoya Kerii also at the back with the big leaves. This store is located in a parking lot of one of the malls here in our city.

In my next Steem Plants post, I will feature some of the other plants and flowers that are being sold in this market. Meanwhile, this is where this post for Week 11 ends. I hope you enjoyed it. Oh by the way, someone asked if Hoyas are also Succulents. The answer is they are related but not of the same genus. That will make them cousins. My thanks to @knopka145 and to our sponsors Steemcurators and Booming. I hope they continue to support this fantastic contest. Good luck to everyone for this week. May you all have a blessed weekend.

(All photos are mine.)