Full Name & Status: Hoya carnosa ‘Marginalis’ is the accepted and established name for a unique cultivar.

Synonyms: Hoya nieusbrief no.4 (1986)p.31, ‘Marginata’, which in this context they published meant “edged better because the yellow-white is mainly along the edge.” (translated from Dutch).

Trade Designations & Trademarks: HINDU ROPE is a former trademark which was applied by B.L.Cobia, Inc. to multiple cultivars, including ‘Marginalis’, ‘Regalis’, and the Hoya carnosa ‘Compacta’ which they purchased and distributed (Griffith, 1977).

Trade Designations & Trademarks: HINDU ROPE is a trade designation which was applied by B.L.Cobia, Inc. to multiple sports of Hoya carnosa ‘Compacta’ (‘Marginalis’, as well as Hoya carnosa ‘Compacta’ itself.

Legal Status: The cultivar was fully patented as a legal variety in 1973, filed in 1971.

Cobia,B.L.(1973).Milkweed Plant (U.S. Plant Pat. 3310P).U.S.Patent and Trademark Office. google.com/patent/USPP3310P/en

Background: Developed as a sport of Hoya carnosa ‘Compacta’ (Hummel) by B.L.Cobia, Inc.

Description: Hoya carnosa ‘Marginalis’ can be distinguished from Hoya carnosa ‘Compacta’ and ‘Hummel’s Krinkle Kurl’ by a variegated leaf border, and from ‘Regalis’ by the color of the variegated border. Cobia describes Hoya carnosa ‘Marginalis’ as “structurally similar to Hoya carnosa ‘Compacta’, and it is pictured in the patent showing a cultivar with a looser growth habit similar to its parent. It is lucky to have these patents so well preserved.

Cobia’s two famous variegated leaf-border sports:

In ‘Marginalis’ the border is cream-white (described in the patent as “albino”) with some pale pink occurring in high light and new growth.

‘Regalis’, a sport of ‘Marginalis’, is characterized by long lasting red-purple, red, and yellow-red in the borders, as well as a significantly tighter overlapping growth habit which is more alike to that seen in ‘Hummel’s Krinkle Kurl’.

Additional Sources:

(1977, June). How new Hoya hybrids come to be. Plants Alive! p.71.

Errors and Corrections:

Why didn’t I include this name in 2022 in Hoya carnosa ‘Compacta’ Stemma Journal 4(1)pgs. 28-43?

‘Marginalis’ is not maintained in PLUTO ( a database that collates and maintains names of legal varieties which are cultivars that have been patented). Most of B.L.Cobia, Inc’s names, while beautifully published, were titled ‘Milkweed Plant’ and have numbers that can’t be pulled up in a search. When I wrote Hoya carnosa ‘Compacta’ for Stemma Journal 4(1) in 2022, I skipped right over this name! There are several reasons I would not do that today (on purpose). When it occurred then, it was wholly in error.

The most important thing for this list is that a legal variety (=cultivar), even one which is no longer legally protected, may have a name which is outside the rules of the ICNCP, such as a Latin name (Brickell et al., 2016). These names are automatically accepted or adopted.

The patent for Hoya carnosa ‘Marginalis’