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Species library › Hoya › Hoya imperialis
Hoyas Well documented

Hoya imperialis

imperial wax flower

Hoya imperialis, the imperial wax flower, is a vigorous climbing epiphyte with some of the largest flowers in the genus: thick, waxy, maroon-to-mauve stars with an ivory corona. It comes from hot, wet lowland forest in southern Thailand and western Malesia, especially Borneo. It wants warm nights all year, high humidity and plenty of room to climb.

Hoya imperialis
Photo: 阿橋 HQ, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day Warm-growingTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Ordinary room humidityBand in Plantistry
Light Bright, filtered lightDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
No rest periodClimber

Where it grows wild

It is an epiphytic climber of lowland wet tropical forest. Bornean herbarium labels record it in riparian primary forest, disturbed lowland forest on low hills, and open padang scrub on white sand, where it scrambles over shrubs in fairly bright light.

A lowland species: most specimens with an elevation are from near sea level (15–20 m), with one old record at about 900 m in Sabah.

Southern ThailandPeninsular MalaysiaBorneo (Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, Kalimantan)SumatraPhilippines

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 2.0 licence, unmodified.