Perhaps it might be helpful to review some of the botanical terminology we find in use when we are buying plants and trying to decide what we have or do not have. This is not only a problem for Hoya, but with the explosion of interest in aroids, it is also a problem with Anthuriums, Monsteras, and Philodendrons, and man other genuses. Hoya as a genus is a lot less populated than most these other genuses...some of which have hundreds of undescribed species and potential natural hybrids still running about in the wild. The ONLY way to prove that something is a true species is through genetic testing, and since in the plant world, across many genuses there is normally exhibited considerable degrees of natural variability WITHIN species, sometime you just can't tell by looking.
These are some of the more common terms we run into when looking at attempting to identify and buy plants
Sport--part of a plant that shows morphological differences from the rest of the plant. Ex.--Xanthosoma 'Mickey Mouse' as it is called is a sport of Xanthosoma saggitifolia variegata. A variegated plant is usually a sport of an identical plant in a species...there is a green Hoya Macrophylla and a variegated/albomargintaed one
cv.--'Cultivar'. A cultivar is simply a variety of a plant that does not exist naturally in the wild.
cf.--'compares with'. This tag is placed on a plant that would seem to be a certain species, but there is sufficient difference to compel some amount of uncertainty in the identification
aff.--'species affines'--a potentially new or undescribed species that has affinity to, but is not IDENTICAL TO, the already described/named species
var.--variety. A plant that is not differentiated as a different species or subspecies but has enough morphological difference to constitute a separate identifier
sp.--species. A SINGLE species
spp.--TWO or MORE species--a group of plants within ONE genus whose specific ID has not been determined
(often confused with:)
subsp.-subspecies
form--Latin forma--one rank below variety. Denotes minor morphological differences in things like leaf color, flower color, fruit color (ex. AMydrium medium 'Blue Form' is identical to normal A. medium except for its color.
primary hybrid---the plant that results from the crossing of two primary species. ex--Anthurium radicans x Anthurium luxurians.
Complex hybrid--a plant that results from any cross where one or more parents are themselves hybrids ex. Anthurium 'Mehani' (Anthurium magnificum x [Anthurium radicans x Anthurium luxurians).
X--denotes a hybrid cross
(the use of x before a plant species without another plant in front of the x usually denotes that the hybrid is un unknown cross, these are also called 'bench crosses', 'bench hybrids', 'accidental hybrids'. Ex. 'xCrystallinum' denotes an unknown hybrid cross of Anthurium crystallinum where the ovule parent (the plant that produced the SEEDS) was Crystallinum but the pollen parent is unknown
nm--(latin notho morph) a hybrid made between different VARIETIES or SSP's
TC-tissue culture. (aka Micropropagation)
Species epithet--the second part of a species name, appearing after the Genus (ex. Hoya imbricata...Hoya=genus; imbricata=species epithet)
Accession--a group of plant material of a single species collected at one time in a single location. Primary accession is the first collection of a plant, secondary accession is a second collection of the same plant from the same place. Primary accession designation is used by field botanists who collect specimens of new plants in order to classify them and possibly describe them if they are undescribed. Secondary accession (and Tertiary and so on) are subsequent collection made from the same place over time in order to see if the morphology of the initial collection remains stable
Provenance--the place of origin of a plant. The Provenance of a certain jewel alocasia might be Sarawak (and ONLY Sarawak). The provenance of another species of plant could be a single place, or multiple places. Some plants of the same species may exhibit morphological differences depending on their provenance, some don't. Some seemingly identical plant species may not hybridize with each other, even though they are the same species, because of some genetic difference caused by their provenance (ex some of the species of Anthurium found in Southern Mexico AND also found farther down in different places in South America will NOT hybridize with each other even though they are the same species)
Seedling---any plant grown from a seed. Some dishonest people selling plants will try to convince the buyer that as a seed grown plant, their specimens are somehow superior to or more genetically pure than something like a tissue culture plant (a clone). But actually, a seedling grown from a clone is...well, just another generation of that clone. And, unless extreme care is then, any seeds produced by any plant always have the possibility of having some alien pollen sneaking in, and making a hybrid. So vegetative propagation (even of a tissue culture plant) is usually more 'pure' than seedlings.
Vegetative propagation--propagating by division, stem cutting, air layering, root cuttings, plantlet harvesting etc of a single plant, leaf propagation (like with begonias)
Hopefully this might be helpful to someone
