Chorizema cordatum
Heart-leaf Flame Pea
Heart-leaf Flame Pea
Chorizema cordatum - Chorizema varium
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: