Complete Care Guide: Hoya Pubicalyx
Complete Care Guide: Hoya Pubicalyx
In this article, you'll find…
Plant Info
Care Guide
Lighting
Watering
Humidity
Soil Needs
Types
Propagating
Common Issues
Frequently Asked Questions
Plant Info
Hoya pubicalyx -- often found as the "Splash" version, which has silvery spots over some or all of the surface -- is a fairly commonly-found species of hoya, with long, elongated leaves that are otherwise similar to the common Hoya carnosa. "Pubicalyx" is a combination of two Latin words: "Pubes", meaning "downy" or slightly furry, and "Calyx", which is the outermost whorl of a flower; the flowers of this hoya are a little furry!
Like all hoyas, the pubicalyx is an epiphytic climber -- meaning that it's rare to find a hoya that's growing out of the ground! Hoyas grow on trees, rocks, telephone poles -- whatever's around -- while they climb, twirling their vines in search of more light. Because of this behaviour, sometimes houseplant hoyas will send out long, leafless tendrils, in search for more support; once it finds this support (my suggestion: give it a trellis!), it'll start growing leaves along the vine, so don't chop 'em off!
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Common Name(s) |
Hoya Pubicalyx, Hoya Pubicalyx Splash, Waxvine |
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Botanical Name |
Hoya pubicalyx |
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Botanical Family |
Apocynaceae, the dogbane family |
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Mature Size |
Vines can grow very long, up to 10-15'! |
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Lighting |
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Watering |
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Humidity |
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Soil Mix |
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Flowers |
Pink clusters of small, star-shaped flowers will appear on mature vines with enough light |
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Hardiness |
Tropical; keep above 10C/50F. |
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Native Region |
Hoya pubicalyx is native to the Philippines! |
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Toxicity |
Completely safe for ingestion -- the nectar of the flowers is reportedly tasty, in fact! |
Take a look at this care guide as an infographic!
Care Guide
Hoya pubicalyx is a succulent vine that can grow very long in the search for more and more light. New leaves will come in, depending on the cultivar, anywhere from pinkish-tinged to so dark purple they're almost black; as they grow and harden off, the colour will fade down to a dark, rich green, often with silvery spots covering some or even most of the leaf. These silver flecks are perfectly normal and natural, just some variegation; vines with a lot of variegated specks are often called "Splash" or even "Super Splash", but there's no real difference between them on a botanical level, so it's ultimately up to you whether your vine counts as "splashy" enough!
Leaves will fill in along the vines in pairs opposite each other, and are elongated, coming to a point, and can grow up to 10cm long, and a few cm wide. Don't worry if it grows a long runner vine without any leaves at first -- it's searching for support, and once it finds it, it'll quickly fill in with leaves to capture that light!
As with all hoyas, it's not just the foliage that Hoya Pubicalyx is grown for -- but the flowers, as well! Flowers will appear in clusters at the end of short stems called peduncles -- they're pink (light to dark, depending on cultivar), star-shaped, sweetly-scented, and produce a lot of nectar (which is both safe for human consumption and reportedly tasty)! Don't cut off the peduncles when the beautiful flowers fade, though -- they'll rebloom from the same spot year after year!
Lighting
You'll want to give your Hoya Pubicalyx a decent amount of lighting -- even a bit of direct sun, particularly if you acclimatize it to direct sun slowly over a couple weeks, is perfectly fine, and your Pubicalyx will thank you. Hoyas are from the rainforest undercanopy, so they're not used to full, direct sun -- so your Pubicalyx is able to tolerate medium lighting situations pretty well, and even low lighting will often be okay, though this will stunt growth.
That having been said, more lighting will make your Pubicalyx grow faster -- and will also encourage more blooms, quicker!
Make sure to check out our general article on lighting!
Watering
Watering a hoya is super simple -- because they store water in their succulent leaves, they come equipped with a handy tool to determine when it's time to water!
It's called the taco test -- when you're checking your plants to see if each one needs watering, simply grab a leaf close to the soil, and try to gently fold it in half like a taco. If there's any resistance -- stop immediately! You can, if you're not careful, snap a leaf in half doing a taco test when it's not ready to be watered. If there's no resistance, and the leaf is fairly bendy, then there isn't much water in the leaves -- and it's time to water!
In general, Hoya Pubicalyx has low watering needs!
Make sure to check out our general article on watering!
Humidity
Hoyas definitely want higher humidity than the average household will have -- ideally, provide it with higher humidity by either running a humidifier, or by grouping it closely together with other plants.
If you can't, though, don't fret! It won't be the happiest it can be, but your Hoya Pubicalyx will acclimate to your household humidity.
Make sure to check out our general article on humidity – including a couple common myths!
Soil Needs
Hoyas are epiphytes, meaning that they generally don't grow in the soil in the ground -- their roots will grow nestled in the crooks of trees, or even sometimes on rocks (or telephone poles, or houses...)! This means that they need very well-draining substrate with lots of air around their roots, and lots of chunky bits for their roots to grab on to -- but also means that they don't need very large pots, since they're used to small spaces in the wild.
Suggestion: Start with 2 parts peat-based potting mix or coco coir, mix in 1 part perlite, and 2 parts orchid bark.
Don't know why you're adding these things? Check out our article on potting mixes!
Types
There are a number of different cultivars of Hoya Pubicalyx out there (including "Royal Hawaiian Purple", which seems to be one of the more common ones); often, you won't be able to be 100% sure what cultivar you have until it flowers for you! Luckily, they all have pretty much exactly the same care requirements, so this guide is applicable to all of them.
As we mentioned before, there are also plants called "Hoya Pubicalyx Splash"; this isn't a true cultivar, just a description of the plant (as in, it has more silvery variegation on it)! The splashier vines are often worth more, but tend to grow more slowly as well.
Propagating
Want more baby plants? You can easily propagate with stem cuttings, the exact same way as you do with most vining houseplants!
Simply cut off a section of stem with a few leaves, just above a node (where the leaves meet the stem), take off the lowest leaf or two (making sure to leave at least one leaf on it, but ideally a few), and then stick it in water or a moist substrate, making sure that at least one node stays moist. Put it in a bright spot for a few weeks, and you'll see roots forming!
Check out our articles on water propagation, soil propagation, or air layering for more details on common propagation methods!
Common Issues
Hoya Pubicalyx's most common issue is definitely related to overwatering -- remember that it doesn't need much water at all. Use the taco test to make sure before giving it a drink!
All houseplants are susceptible to pests, including mealybugs, spider mites, and more. Hoyas aren't known to be particularly susceptible to any specific pest!
Frequently Asked Questions
Why isn't my Pubicalyx flowering?
There are two parts to a hoya flowering: maturity and lighting! If your hoya is still pretty young, have patience; if it's a few years old, make sure it's getting as much light as it can! It's also commonly said that hoyas flower most quickly when they're slightly root-bound; this is likely due to a stress response, though, so we don't recommend keeping hoyas (or any plants!) root-bound to encourage flowering.
Why are the new leaves coming in purple?
Short answer: That's completely normal in high light situations -- they'll fade to the normal green over time!
Longer, more science-y answer: New leaves need protection from harmful UV rays; until they've hardened off, when the plant can detect that it's getting a lot of light (and therefore, in nature, a lot of UV rays), Hoya Australis will cover the leaf surface with anthocyanins, a type of chemical that protects against UV rays... and happens to appear purple! (In this plant, at least; they can also appear reddlish or orangeish, depending on the species of plant.) Once the leaf is matured, the anthocyanins aren't necessary anymore, and the natural chlorophyll green takes over!