Status an accepted & established name for a unique cultivar. It has not been typified because blooms have not been seen in many years and they will be a valuable addition that can hopefully be added when the registry is published in print.
Full name Hoya ‘Rainforest Beauty’
Established as a cultivar with a description in the print sales list of Michael Miyashiro. The date of the list was lost but determined as 1999 based on subsequent research (Brickell et al. 2016, Art.26.4).
Classification A selected sport which developed variegation from among a batch of hybrid* seedlings. This selected seedling is mostly related to Hoya macgillivrayi according to the reported information about the cross. As noted above, the blooms are unseen.
Parentage & name background When this cultivar was first published with clear description, it was in hybrid formula as Hoya (archboldiana x macgillivrayi) ‘Rainforest Beauty’. This is purported to be alphabetical order and based on the established species which were involved in two separate crosses, but this was not evident at the time.
According to Miyashiro in correspondence which was shared publicly in Dave’s Garden Web Forum via email posted by C.Noel on a thread dated July 23, 2004, ‘Rainforest Beauty’ is actually the progeny of Hoya macgillivrayi ‘Rainforest’ x (macgillivrayi x archboldiana).
‘Rainforest’ (Female/pollen parent) is an infraspecific cross between two variations of Hoya macgillivrayi.
Miyashiro named the cross which was the pollen parent as ‘Beauty’. (Hoya ‘Beauty’** is currently Lost and is not established, but is recorded here as related to the origin and classification of ‘Rainforest Beauty’).
Originator Michael Miyashiro, Kilohana, Hawaii, U.S.A. Rainforest Plantes et Fleurs, Inc.
Accession Code Michael Miyashiro is referred to historically as MM, but no additional code is on record for this cultivar.
Other market names Hoya archboldiana ‘Variegata’, Hoya archboldiana (outer variegated), Hoya archboldiana ‘Silver’, Hoya archboldiana ‘Albomarginata’. These sales names are not established, but so far (6/2024) the foliage and provenance of all of them match to Hoya ‘Rainforest Beauty’.
Because these names are not unique (are description only), they may not always refer to this cultivar in the future and around the world. A new assemblage of plants potentially qualifying to be a cultivar may be selected and propagated at any time. A new cultivar would require its own name and published description to differentiate its features from ‘Rainforest Beauty’.
Undetermined published names Hoya archboldiana ‘Bold Edge’ is a name that was used by Asiatica Nursery to describe a white margined Hoya sold under this name. It is not yet determined whether this is a synonym of ‘Rainforest Beauty’ or refers to a separate cultivar with differences. If you grow a Hoya sold as ‘Bold Edge’, or know something about it, we would be grateful to hear from you.
Description
Leaves are variegated on the margin in cream, yellow, or white. The new growth comes in solid-nearly solid and the variegation develops through stages of light to moderate green to be brighter and bolder over time. The center of the leaf appears nearly blue in young leaf and silver in a mature leaf to the human eye. There is a sort of stippling effect as the foliage goes through the process of transitioning to maturity. High light may draw out a vivid pink around the margins on the newer leaves before fading to the typical coloration. The leaves are narrow, and start quite small compared to either macgillivrayi or archboldiana as a species. They lengthen and broaden over time, but on average a mature leaf may be only 2-4cm wide and 5 cm long in a full size specimen plant. Dimpling and features of their parents become more fully present as they mature. Stems are frequently woody and delicate. Growth is relatively slow, even for a variegated cultivar, but begins to pickup with age.
Grown best in high light and warmth.
Flowers are described by Miyashiro as “red”, 3cm across, and blooming in quantities of 10-15. They are unseen by the ICRA at this time.
*Photographs of the cultivar in bloom are sought to add to the record.
Legal Protections None
Availability It is very difficult to find the cultivar under the correct name. It has been dropped (and possibly renamed) over the years as it traveled overseas from Sweden to Russia back to the United States and to Thailand. Sometimes it can easily be traced to Michael Miyashiro and other times it is obvious from the description alone that it can be nothing else, provenance notwithstanding (Art. 2.20 Brickell et al.).
In addition to the loss of the name from translation or sales list problems, the similar name of the very different parent, Hoya macgillivrayi ‘Rainforest’, caused some confusion in the United States and Thailand especially.
Additional valuable publications and sources:
Blom,M.(2007). Hoyatelegrafen,2.pg.37 Note:This publication includes a description of Hoya ‘Rainforest Beauty’ and photograph. It discusses the clones sold as Hoya archboldiana ‘Albomarginata’ and ‘Variegated’ as different selections in Blom’s opinion at the time, based on name structure. So far the ones that I have found in the market have been ‘Rainforest Beauty’. -R.C.C.
Brickell, C.D. & Alexander, C. & Cubey, Janet & David, John & Hoffmann, M.H.A. & Leslie, A.C. & Malécot, Valéry & Jin, Xiaobai. (2016). International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants.
Clark,P.(1997).Hoya cultivar names found (continued).Fraterna 10(1).4.https://archive.org/details/fraternaofficial1014inte
Hatch,L.(2024). Houseplant Cultivars III.
(July 23,2004). Hoya ‘Rainforest Beauty’. Daves’s Garden. Aloha Hoya (Carol Noel) posts correspondence with Michael Miyashiro regarding parentage.
*Have you bloomed Hoya ‘Rainforest Beauty’?
*Hoya ‘Beauty’ : Do you have more information on this, such as missing publications or living material?
*Hoya archboldiana ‘Bold Edge’: Do you grow a plant by this name?