Hoya pallilimba

Before 1994, few Hoya species from Sulawesi were in collections, but in that year a group of Hoya enthousiasts spent three weeks collecting Hoya material on the island. About seventy numbers were collected, but as they were not in flower, some species were collected several times. The plants were brought back to Holland, grown on and brought into flower. One of the species collected was at the time given the number 114, later changed to 8864, and only determined as Hoya pallilimba by Ruurd van Donkelaar and David Kleijn in 2001 (‘Taxonomy and ecology of the Genus Hoya’ in Blumea, 46/3, pp. 457-483). The pallilimba was found by the Ranu River in the Morowali reserve and is a species that grows in association with ants. The ants (genus Tetramorium) take the seed into holes in branches to store as a food supply; the seeds that are not eaten will germinate and grow from the hole. The plant is not solely dependent on the ants; seeds that drop into leaf litter in the fork of branches will also germinate.
Pallilimba is a hanging species that is not very free-flowering. It also has to be reasonably large before it will flower. The plant itself when not in flower is very similar to two other species on the island, Hoya brevialata and Hoya myrmecopa. It is a lot easier to tell them apart, when the plants are in flower. Brevialata has much larger flowers and can be red or white. Myrmecopa has flowers that hang down as buds but which will stand upright when open. Pallilimba flowers are smaller and always reddish in colour.
The plant is reasonably easy in cultivation and can reach a length of 1.50 mtr. It is best grown in a hanging pot to give the stems enough room. It is easily propagated from cuttings; in the summer they will root in about 10-12 weeks. The plant requires higher temperatures than many of the other hoyas, around 20°C minimum.

Hoya pallilimba GPS8864