Chorizema cordatum

Chorizema cordatum - Chorizema varium

Location & distribution maps

Plant description

Common name:         Heart-leaf Flame Pea

• Noongar people know the plant as kaly

Conservation status: Least concern

• Not considered to be at risk in the wild

Etymology:   

• Chorizema…from Greek, choros, a dance and, zema, a food, an apparent reference to the feelings of the discoverers on finding this genus and water at the same location

• The specific epithet (caudatum) means "heart-shaped"

Flowers:

• The flowers are arranged in racemes up to 120 mm long on the ends of branches or in leaf axils

• The flowers 10–12 mm wide, with various combinations of yellow, orange and red to pink

• Flowering occurs from July to December

Fruit:                            

Leaves:         

• Heart-shaped leaves

• Its leaves are heart-shaped, 30–50 mm long 

• Has a stipule at the base of the petiole,

• Often have wavy, toothed or lobed edges

Stem & branches: 

• Grows up to 1 m high and 1.5 m wide

Roots:         

Habit:        

• It is a woody, erect, scrambling or climbing shrub 

Habitat:   

• Heart-leaf flame pea grows in forest, on rocky outcrops, along watercourses and on winter-wet flats 

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to the southwest of Western Australia

• In the Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain and Warren bioregions 

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • Chorizema cordatum was first formally described in 1838 by John Lindley in Edwards's Botanical Register 

  • This was from specimens raised by Robert Mangles in London from seed collected in the Swan River Colony

• Use in horticulture

  • This species can be grown as a garden plant, and does well in other parts of the country, (such as Sydney on the other side of the Australian continent)

  • However, a summer with lower humidity is better suited for this plant

  • As it does not tolerate freezing, in cooler areas it requires the protection of glass

  • Propagation from seed is easily achieved, and cuttings strike well

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorizema_cordatum (2023)

• https://anpsa.org.au/plant_profiles/chorizema-cordatum (Jan 2024)