Chorizema


Chorizema, commonly known as flame peas, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to Australia.

Description

Plants in the genus Chorizema are mostly shrubs or subshrubs, sometimes climbers, usually with simple leaves arranged in opposite pairs, the flowers usually arranged in racemes, each flower on a short pedicel. The sepal lobes are more or less equal, the upper pair broader and partly joined, the standard petal more or less round or kidney-shaped, the wings oblong and much longer than the keel. The fruit is an oval pod containing 4 to 32 seeds.

Taxonomy

The genus Chorizema was first formally described in 1800 by Jacques Labillardière in his Relation du Voyage [à la Recherche de la Pérouse], and the first species he described was Chorizema ilicifolium. The genus name means "divided thread", Labillardière having noted that the stamens are separate from each other.

Distribution

Flame peas are endemic to the south-west of Western Australia, apart from C. parviflorum that occurs in New South Wales and Queensland.

Use in horticulture

This genus of peas is valued in cultivation for their colourful flowers. Most species do not tolerate frost, and in temperate regions require the protection of glass.

Species list

The following species and subspecies are accepted by the Australian Plant Census as of June 2020:Chorizema aciculare C.A.Gardner

Hybrids

The following hybrids have been described:Chorizema ×lowii Hort. ex Rev.