Connie Birdwell, posing for a photo with her hoya plant, is carrying on the family tradition of gifting the plant that is part of the original hoya her family brought to Oklahoma during the Land Run. [PHOTO BY CHRIS LANDSBERGER, THE OKLAHOMAN]

Connie Birdwell has simple advice for taking care of cuttings from a hoya plant that her great-grandparents brought to Oklahoma during the 1889 Land Run: “Don't do much to it.”

The original hoya plant came by covered wagon with Birdwell's great-grandparents, Andrew and Mary Chamberlain, who settled briefly near present-day Kingfisher.

Birdwell has a cutting from the plant her mother had for years, which had been cut from the Chamberlains' original hoya plant.

Plant cuttings have been handed down to succeeding generations over the years, and have been placed in the care of many family friends, Birdwell, 80, said.