Tricolor
Green-centred leaves with pale borders and pink to red young growth in Cobia’s historical cultivar, associated with the trade designation KRIMSON QUEEN.
The historical name and description refer to a particular selection; a KRIMSON QUEEN label or a similar leaf pattern does not authenticate modern plants.
Overview
Tricolor is a historically documented, border-variegated carnosa with green leaf centres and pale margins that can carry pink and red colour while young. The 1969 patent describes the plant’s distinctive colours, leaves, flowers and propagation. The later Rubra patent names Tricolor as Rubra’s parent. The cultivar registrar connects that later name with the earlier description, and Green’s nursery history pairs Tricolor with KRIMSON QUEEN. These records describe a particular cultivated selection. A green-centred leaf with a pale border, pink new growth or a familiar selling label cannot by itself establish descent from that plant.
Related profiles: Rubra
Photo Gallery
No identity-, rights-, and profile-reviewed photographs are available yet.
Evidence-Based Growing Insights
No form-specific care conclusion has passed review. The parent Hoya page remains the source for shared information; generic advice is not repeated here.
What We Know
- The cultivar registrar accepts Tricolor and treats Tri-Color and Tri-color as later naming equivalents. It locates establishment of the name in the 1972 Rubra patent, rather than reading the descriptive 1969 title as an unambiguous naming act (Full Name, Synonyms and Name Background).
- The 1969 patent reports discovery among cuttings of an unnamed, more robust line at Winter Garden, Florida. That unnamed line had itself arisen as a mutation of material called Hoya carnosa variegata. The unnamed intermediate is not identified as a modern selling label (cols.1–3 / original PDF pp.6–7).
- The plant is described as a semisucculent, evergreen twining vine with some branching. Its opposite leaves are usually elliptic, commonly 1¾–3 inches long and 1–2 inches wide at maturity, with variegated borders around green centres. These dimensions describe the patent material (col.4 / PDF p.7).
- Young pale borders can carry pink and red colour that fades as leaves age. The green centres can also carry a temporary red-purple overcast, appearing dark brownish or blackish. Stems, petioles and peduncles contribute relatively persistent red-family colour (cols.4–5 / PDF pp.7–8).
- The patent reports that the first three nodes on new branches can produce more extensively variegated, sometimes nearly or entirely pale leaves. This described tendency does not authenticate an unrelated pale shoot or establish its future behaviour (cols.2 and 5 / PDF pp.6 and 8).
- Flower clusters usually contain 20–40 flowers in the patent account. The description includes purplish-red flower stalks, purplish-pink upper petal surfaces, purplish-red lower surfaces and fuller corona segments than its variegata comparator (cols.5–6 / PDF p.8).
- Successive stem-cutting generations reportedly retained the distinguishing characters. That inventor’s account is evidence about the historical line, while continuity to plants currently sold as Tricolor remains unresolved (col.2 / PDF p.6).
- The patent describes darker colour with lower temperatures and/or greater shade, and longer-lasting winter colour. Its plants were fertilized and grown under 85% shade in Florida. These nursery observations do not isolate light from temperature or establish a household care optimum (cols.5–6 / PDF p.8).
- The 23 June 1970 Certificate of Correction changes descriptive text, colour notations and a missing leaf-width row. Corrected page images control the description; the tables should not be copied from uncorrected OCR (original PDF p.10).
- The later Rubra patent reports Rubra as a sport on Tricolor. Green’s nursery history associates Tricolor with KRIMSON QUEEN, while the registrar warns against identifying plants from that designation alone. These are a reported parent relationship and a naming association, not interchangeable forms of proof (Rubra col.1 / PDF p.2; Stemma pp.3–4; registrar Trade Designations).
- The 2025 nursery interview describes the nursery’s releases other than Krinkle 8 as natural mutations. This retrospective testimony gives origin context; it does not supply a cultivar-specific treatment log or authenticate living Tricolor material (Stemma p.7).
What We Are Still Learning
Which living Tricolor plants have a documented propagation chain to Cobia’s historical material?
What would help: Original nursery labels, dated acquisitions and distribution records, and authenticated descendants connected by propagation records.
What was the unnamed intermediate line described in the 1969 patent?
What would help: Dated nursery catalogues, stock records or correspondence that identify that exact material without relying on a later selling label.
How consistently do the described colours and variegation persist in traceable plants?
What would help: Dated leaves, stems and flowers across maturity and successive propagation cycles, with light, temperature and other growing conditions recorded.
Common Misconceptions
- KRIMSON QUEEN is a historical trade designation, not proof that every plant carrying it is the documented Tricolor cultivar.
- Tricolor is not a blanket name for every carnosa with three visible colours. Colour and border variegation alone do not establish clone identity.
- The reported parent of Rubra and Rubra itself are distinct historical selections.
- A patent’s nursery conditions and seasonal colour observations do not demonstrate a separate care regimen or a safe treatment for increasing colour.