Species
+

Hoya carnosa (L.fil.) R.Br.

Common Wax-plant, Mata de cera, Porcelainflower, Porcelainflower

Climate known 59 photographs Other epiphyte
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Hoya carnosa, the porcelain flower or wax plant, is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae, native to East Asia. It is a common house plant grown for its attractive waxy foliage, and sweetly scented flowers. It is grown well in pots and hanging baskets.

Text from Wikipedia, “Hoya carnosa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Apocynaceae
Described by
(L.fil.) R.Br.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +5
Wild records
1255 in range· 394 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jul, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2882mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 401 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–37DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Hoya, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2882 mm a year, wettest September at 401 mm, driest January at 104 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10 °C (archetype minimum for a other epiphyte, above the 8.5 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Asclepias carnosa L.fil.; Cynanchum carnosum (L.fil.) Decne.; Hoya carnosa f. variegata (Siebold ex C.Morren) H.Hara; Hoya carnosa subsp. foliis-variegata E.J.Lowe & W.Howard; Hoya carnosa var. carnosa and 22 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Hoya, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (2019 mm of 2882 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.6 °C against a yearly mean of 21.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2882 mm a year, wettest September at 401 mm, driest January at 104 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2882 mm a year at the habitat, 2019 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 401 mm, driest January at 104 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1848 mm to 4354 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 10 °C (archetype minimum for a other epiphyte, above the 8.5 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 8.5 °C, the absolute minimum 3.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 7.5 °C to 17.4 °C), warmest day 28.5 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 8.5 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a other epiphyte (grouped by the genus Hoya, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 10 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 18 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Jul; mean night from 12 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2882 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 397 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 3.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°34.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)3.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 16–37RH 63–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 397 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C18 / 14–2118 / 15–2221 / 18–2424 / 21–2626 / 23–2827 / 25–2929 / 26–3028 / 26–3027 / 24–2925 / 22–2722 / 19–2419 / 15–22
Night °C12 / 8–1713 / 9–1815 / 11–2018 / 15–2221 / 17–2423 / 19–2625 / 20–2724 / 20–2723 / 19–2621 / 16–2417 / 13–2214 / 9–19
Rain mm104 / 24–246149 / 37–291168 / 50–253197 / 87–255302 / 199–420390 / 233–567330 / 172–516370 / 254–556401 / 220–624226 / 66–535137 / 39–399108 / 26–264
DLI16 / 13–2419 / 15–2625 / 21–3230 / 26–3532 / 28–3533 / 30–3637 / 33–4134 / 31–3830 / 27–3326 / 22–2919 / 16–2516 / 13–22
RH %63 / 57–7365 / 58–7365 / 60–7266 / 62–7167 / 64–7168 / 64–7267 / 64–7168 / 65–7167 / 64–7165 / 60–7264 / 58–7263 / 56–72

Each figure is the median across the 397 grid cells holding the 1197 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1299:6028 (25.025, 121.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 397 distinct grid cells holding the 1197 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1299:6028 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 25.00_121.250, lapse-corrected -185 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 44 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Laos, Myanmar· introduced: Korea, Bangladesh, Solomon Is., Fiji, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“climbing epiphyte or lithophyte” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker24.833, 121.567 · in the densest population, 807 records (64% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1255 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 394 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 226 km away. 175 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 58 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1255 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Hoya carnosaHoya carnosaHoya carnosaHoya carnosaHoya carnosaHoya carnosaHoya carnosaHoya carnosa

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (5); (c) Takaaki Hattori, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) 謝麗霦, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Hoya carnosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Screening Indoor Plants for Volatile Organic Pollutant Removal Efficiency
Dong Yang, Svoboda V. Pennisi, Ki-Cheol Son, Stanley J. Kays (2009) · HortScience
Crassulacean Acid Metabolism and Diurnal Variations of Internal CO2 and O2 Concentrations in Sedum praealtum DC
MH Spalding, DK Stumpf, Msb Ku, R. H. Burris (1979) · Australian Journal of Plant Physiology
A comparison of CO2 and O2 exchange patterns and the relationship with chlorophyll fluorescence during photosynthesis in C3 and CAM plants
Kate Maxwell, Murray R. Badger, C. B. Osmond (1998) · Australian Journal of Plant Physiology
Light‐induced pigment degradation in leaves and ripening fruits studied in situ with reflectance spectroscopy
Mark N. Merzlyak, Anatoly A. Gitelson, Sergei I. Pogosyan, Lucianna Lekhimena (1998) · Physiologia Plantarum
Pregnanes and Pregnane Glycosides from Hoya carnosa.
Fumiko Abe, Hitomi FUJISHIMA, Yukiko IWASE, Tatsuo YAMAUCHI (1999) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Toward in Vivo Chemical Imaging of Epicuticular Waxes
Ina Weißflog, Nadine Vogler, Denis Akimov, Andrea Dellith (2010) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
CAM-idling in Hoya carnosa (Asclepiadaceae)
Lisa Rayder, Irwin P. Ting (1983) · Photosynthesis Research

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Hoya 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 79 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.