Volume 3, Issue #2 - Cubits

26: genus Eriostemma (Schltr.) D. Kloppenburg & Gilding
Etymology: “Erio” = “wooly”, Gr. + “stemma” = “crown”, Gr.
Type species: Eriostemma coronaria (Blume) D. Kloppenburg & Gilding.
Overall form: these species are rampant, twining lianas which have a terrestrial, rarely or never epiphytic,
habit. Leaves are medium-sized, ovate-acute, pinnately veined, with no silver splotching. Except
for the interior of the corollas and the upper coronas of these species, mostly all parts of the foliage and
flowers are covered with dense to scattered hair. Flowers are large to giant-sized, thick, mostly rotate but
occasionally reflexed (E. ciliata) or shallowly cup-shaped (E. lauterbachii), usually not strongly fragrant,
ranging in color from white and pale green through pink and orange to dark brownish-red.
Distribution: tropical Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines.
Publication: (as a section) Schlechter, 1914. “Die Asclepiadaceen von Deutsch-Neu-Guinea”.
Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie 50 (sup.): 81--164;
(as a genus) D. Kloppenburg & Gilding. Fraterna 14(2). 2001.
Original description: (translated from German by Dieter Paul & Dale Kloppenburg) “...the stems and
leaves with all surfaces (parts) covered with short soft hairs; in other respects its blooms possess marked,
sharp characteristics..... The gynostegium stands upon a column which goes down into the crown of the
collar of the corolla which is covered with shaggy cottony hairs. The corona scales are comparatively
short. The blooms are large or very large with a well developed, thickly hirsute calyx. Type species of
the section is H. coronaria Blume.”
Also, from the same publication: “I thought it best to present here this distinctive section Eriostemma.
This section is so well and sharply different, that one could consider whether or not to regard it as a
separate sub-genus. I have so far presented above briefly the main points, but now I wish to present
them once again in more detail. In habit there is a strong similarity that can be found with EU-Hoya, but
the branches are softer and more fleshy and consistently with more or less soft hairs. The peduncles are
extraordinarily thick and soft textured, the calyx as with Pterostelma more strongly structured, and the
large hairy blooms are likewise fleshy. The gynostegium with the corona scales stand upon a woolly matted
column that is the outgrowth formed of the filaments, which are united with the corona tube. The
pollinia are distinguished (marked) as opposed to the other Hoya species by means of the fact that the
translators have undergone a strong development and exhibit a twist; also the retinaculum is rather large.
The pollinia are more club shaped and moreover do not have the keel on the outer edge, characteristic
of other Hoya sections.”
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