Chorizema varium, commonly known as bush flame pea,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a spreading shrub with prickly, heart-shaped leaves and orange, yellow and pinkish-red flowers.
Chorizema varium is a prostrate, spreading or scrambling shrub that typically grows to a height of about and has softly-hairy branches. Its leaves are heart-shaped, long, wide and wavy with more or less prickly teeth on the edges. The flowers are arranged in racemes, each flower on a pedicel long. The sepals are hairy and long. The flowers are orange, yellow and pinkish-red, the standard petal long, the wings long, and the keel long. Flowering mainly occurs from September to October and the fruit is a pod long.[2]
Chorizema varium was first formally described in 1839 by Joseph Paxton in his "Magazine of Botany".[3] [4] The specific epithet (varium) means "variable", referring to the leaves.[5]
This species of pea grows on coastal limestone hills and outcrops in the Swan Coastal Plain bioregion of south-western Western Australia.
Chorizema varium is listed as "Threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is in danger of extinction.[6]