Hoya carnosa -- the Wax Plant

Hoya carnosa -- the Wax Plant, drawing by Sarah "Sallie" Thayer, 2011

Hoya carnosa, the wax plant, is a species in the family Asclepiadaceae, the Milkweed family. It is one of 100 species of Hoya that are native to Eastern Asia and Australia. It can serve as a minor foliage crop but is mainly grown as a garden plant or house plant.

The flowers are light pink, star-shaped, and they put off a strong smelling waxy viscous material. They are sweetly scented and produce abundant nectar.

Hoya is a genus of 200-300 species of tropical climbing plants in the family Apocynaceae (Dogbane), native to southern Asia (India east to southern China and southward), Australia, and Polynesia. Common names for this genus are waxplant, waxvine, waxflower or simply hoya. This genus was named by botanist Robert Brown, in honour of his friend, botanist Thomas Hoy.




Hoya carnosa -- the Wax Plant with solarization effect, drawing by Sarah "Sallie" Thayer, 2011

 Of course, I could not resist playing with the image.  I found the result of  "solarizing"  the image to be very interesting, especially the colour of the flowers.  When I saved this version to My Pictures I noticed that the item just next to it was "Hubble -- a photograph from space". 

As you can see below, the "colours" and "dust shapes" given to the photograph by the editors bear an interesting resemblance to the colours and shapes of the flowers of the Hoya Plant, solarization version.


Hubble Telescope Photograph

 I always enjoy such comparisons and thought you might enjoy this one as well.


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PETS AND CHILDREN

Here are a few of the many photos I have collected of the interactions (mainly sleeping) between young children and the family pet.  Enjoy.

This is all for tonight as I am not feeling all that great.  I will write more about how I am doing in the next posting.

May the peace of God be with us all.