


In cool weather this absorption is very gradual so that the sap fills the corona lobes and leaks out from between the anther wings and colours the corolla evenly, before the buts open. This blachish red nectar is absorbe by the "sponge" and drawn up into the corona, making the lobes appear dark. There are nectaries at the base of the carpels which exude dark red, almost black nectar. The corona is filled with a sponge-like material as is an area surrounding the carpels. I have done countless experiments with these flowers and I learned that the corona is transparent and the corollas more or less white. The The dark red (almost black) coronas are an illusion. Contrary to what you may have read elsewhere, the flower of Red Buttons DO sometimes appear variegated as do those of Royal Hawaiian Purple. It differs from Royal Hawaiian Purple in having smaller leaves with less speckling on them Contrary to what you may have read elsewhere, there is some speckling on some of the leaves but not all. McDonald saying that she selected it from seedlings found on a hoya growing in her garden. Red Buttons is the name of a cultivar of the late Genevieve McDonald of Merritt's Island, FL. The owner of the flower shop was a customer of mine.

The collection data was the address of a flower shop in Manila. Dexter included collection data with those cuttings and I checked it out.

Dale who was anxious to get his name attached to as many new species as possible, wrote it up as a new variety of Hoya pubicalyx, which he called Hoya pubicalyx chimera (I think he spelled that a bit differently). Back in the early 1980s, Dexter Heuschkel sent cuttings of this to both Dale Kloppenburg and to me. Royal Hawaiian Purple is the correct name for the one you have seen labeled Hoya chimera and Hoya pubicalyx cv. the blooms were deep pink, the same peduncles produced very light pink flowers in the summer months!ġ). I found an explanation of the differences in those two, it also explains why the flower color varies in different temps. Lydia, YOU GROW GIRL!!!! Beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing!
