Met dank aan Kate Fredericsen.
“Hoyas can be named after:
1. Places - if a Hoya is named after a place, it ends with "ensis"
2. Character of the plant - some hoyas are named based on their outstanding characteristics.
3. Prominent Collectors - if a species is collected from the wild, it is usually named after the collector. Generally, if the collector is a male, the name ends with ii.
4. Person of exemplary contributions to Botany. If that person is
1. a female - the name ends with "ae" (example: Hoya burtoniae- named after Christine Burton, Hoya nicholsoniae - named after Lady Nicholson of Australia)
2. a male - the name ends with "iana" (except Hoya loyceandrewsiana, maybe because it is named after the her full name)
3. a family name - the name ends with "iorum"
A ‘description name’ is not a real thing, though I both understand and respect what you are asking.
Let me see if I can better explain what I mean..
There are descriptions in sales lists from nurseries, which may differ for this clone for as many nurseries as grow it..
And there are also cultivar names which are established and/or published names for selected plants from horticulture..
Then there are Trade Names which are selling names. These are misunderstood and are meant to be used by one seller for a single cultivar, but that is not always the case. (Or even often, at least lately ).
And then there are also of course locations.
Thé published name under the ICN- which here is Hoya finlaysonii Wight.
I could not tell you from a photo which of the many beautiful clones of finlaysonii this is. They are often described with locations, leaf length, a number.. and some or all may even be the same clone.
A more accurate description for your inventory is any that you give it based on how it came to you and from where .
I’m not sure if that was very helpful. I would personally tag it as the species, with a note about who you got it from.
Each plant is given a first name and last name, generally based in Latin, that is unique to each species. This name is recognized for that plant throughout the world, no matter what the native language might be.
The scientific name of a plant is consists of two names:
(1) the genus or generic name, and
(2) the specific epithet or species name.
IMPORTANT: There are rules to follow when writing a scientific name.
(1). The genus name is written first.
(2). The genus name is always underlined or italicized.
(3). The first letter of the genus name is always capitalized.
Example : Hoya - H is always capitalized
(1). The specific epithet is written second.
(2). The specific epithet is always underlined or italicized.
(3). The first letter of the specific epithet name is never capitalized.
Example : lacunosa or lacunosa –
The correct way to write Hoya lacunosa therefore is Hoya lacunosa or Hoya lacunosa - you do not write it as lacunosa only. You have to write the word Hoya, with capital H.
Addtions from Patrick Isme
Place names may also get an -ica ending - as in Hoya bhutanica, Hoya burmanica, Hoya myanmarica, Hoya neoebudica (New Hebrides), Hoya siamica and Hoya thailandica.
Hoya sussuela is named after a word used by Rumphius as a name for two different plants and may be from a Malay native name for something that may or may not be the species now named that. The name may mean "very milky". However, both of Rumphius' plants were edible vegetables and may not have been a Hoya at all but some other edible Apocynaceae.
Hoya alexicaca from the anti-poison qualities of Vincetoxicum indicum because the plant was mistakenly identified as the Nansjera-patsja depicted in the Hortus Malabarici published in 1689, which reported those anti-poison qualities.
Hoya nova, maybe just a "new Hoya" in Latin but suspiciously published in Dale Kloppenburg's "Hoya New" journal by Kloppenburg.
Hoya montana and Hoya oreogena from the habitat of mountains.
Of course, they may be named after patrons who financed expeditions like the unfortunately unscented Hoya yvesrocheri.
