New Hoya Peduncles vs New Vine Growth – Carla's Hoya haven

Flowering peduncles are the goal of every Hoya collector. We can say we’re in it for the beautiful foliage but that first peduncle resulting in flowers is what turns the occasional Hoya buyer into an all all out Hoya obsessed hoarder. Once we get started it can be next to impossible to get control of our obsession and our collections.

A peduncle is the stalk of a flower or inflorescence. The inflorescence in simple terms is the arrangement of flowers on the floral axis. This type of inflorescence which results in a flower or floral arrangement is known a cymose inflorescence. The other type of inflorescence is a racemose inflorescence in which the main axis continues to grow and does not terminate in inflorescence.

More information on Hoya anatomy is available in A Look at Hoya Sections, Part 1 by Mark Randal, Stemma 2(3), Summer 2008.

Another great site with well labeled cross sections of Hoya flowers can be found at Some Bad Photos of Plants. The Beautiful Hoya, Sunday, October 11, 2020. They are actually very good photos of plants. Amazing.

Is it a new peduncle or just a bit of new vine? This is a question that bedevils many a new Hoya collector. We spend a little money on a new Hoya, sometimes a lot of money, tend our plants lovingly, give them the best possible conditions, fret over every lost leaf and when we spot a little new growth we all want it to be a peduncle. More often that not it’s just a bit of new vine.

Many hoyas are collected for their gorgeous foliage. However, bringing a Hoya to flower is a heady rush only a true hoyahead can understand. Above is the first peduncle to form on my Hoya sunrise. I’ve been keeping an eye on this since it first started to grow though initially I dismissed it as just new vine. The first clue it might be a peduncle is that it formed at a node. It also tends to be somewhat flat on the bottom as this is where the buds grow.

The second clue is the downward angle of growth. For many Hoyas the peduncles grow downward. This makes it easier for them to drip nectar onto the carpet. Kidding. Hoyas are epiphytes and grow in trees. This downward growth is probably some evolutionary adaptation that makes it easier for pollinators to access the pollen than if the flowers were pointing upwards and stuck to the leaves of the tree. Vines grow upward due to the upward climbing and twining nature of these plants. And, the leaves themselves tend to face upwards to bask in the sun.

In this photo of H. sunrise another possible peduncle is forming on an adjacent vine. It’s also somewhat flat on the end but hasn’t yet grown any buds so it’s still a question mark for me. Maybe it’s a peduncle. Then again, maybe not. It could just be a weird bit of vine. You can find a great photo of a H. sunrise flower at Vermont Hoyas.

In one last photo from H. sunrise is a photo of new vine growth. New leaves are forming on the node about an inch below the tip. At the base of each leaf is a rounded bit of yellow-green growth. These are the new leaf nodes.

You can also see them in the node above just below the tip. New leaves will form there as well.

Below are photos of two Hoya kerrii plants. They each grew what appears to be a peduncle. Each one juts out and angles downward. They’re somewhat flat at the end but neither has started to grow buds like in the photo above. They’ve stayed like this all summer so I don’t expect either one to bloom.

In the photo on the left that particular Hoya kerrii has a new vine growing from the same node with a new leaf at the base. I’ve noticed in photos on the web that Hoya kerrii tends to bloom close the stem and tends to point outward more. You can see this more in the photo on the right. Some nice photos of H. kerrii flowers can be found at Vermont Hoyas.

Below are a few photos of Hoya lacunosa, my most frequent bloomer.

Shout out to Basie Plants which is one of my favorite YouTube channels. When I’m not doing my own plant chores I’m watching Miro do his plant chores. He has loads of entertaining and informative videos. If you want to know more about peduncles vs new vine watch the video below. He has some great information and excellent photos.