The warm and wet conditions this summer have seen lot of Illawarra indigenous plants flowering and fruiting really well, and adding a range of colours to parks, gardens and natural areas.

We've all ooh-ed and ah-ed over brilliant reds of the Illawarra Flame Trees (Brachychiton acerifolius), and the yellow-and-orange pompoms of the Snow Wood (Pararchidendron pruinosum, featured here last summer) have been spectacular this year, although much less well known in cultivation. 

Somewhat overlooked for their colour potential are the leaves of local plants. And one plant in particular, the Bleeding Heart (or Homalanthus populifolius) is known for the bright colour of its older leaves.

Young leaves are a bright, fresh green, which dulls as they grow and age; older leaves finally turn red as they stop producing chlorophyll (which gives leaves a green appearance to human eyes).

Older Bleeding Heart leaves can be anything from a cheerful scarlet to bright red, or even a port wine or burgundy colour.   

Bleeding Hearts are not deciduous, meaning that each plant will bear leaves of a range of ages. So rather than all the leaves turning red and falling at once, which would happen with a deciduous plant, there's always a proportion of the leaves doing their red thing.

A bonus with Bleeding Hearts, which are one of the most common and widespread rainforest trees in the region, is that their globular purple-black fruit are great attractors of birds, particularly pigeons and doves, which will come in large numbers to feast on a productive tree. 

Almost any natural area in the region will have Bleeding Heart present, whether as understorey plants growing beneath the eucalypts in wet sclerophyll forests, or on the many areas of regenerating rainforest.

It's a 'pioneer species', meaning that it will often establish in relatively open and sunny areas, and provide shade and shelter to other indigenous plants. Although its leaves are soft and plants in the wrong position will wilt and suffer, it can withstand difficult conditions once established, as this awesome tree that grew along Lawrence Hargrave Drive in Bulli for many years demonstrates. 

Watch out for Bleeding Hearts in parks, gardens and reserves near you. Even the smallest plants have the distinctive heart-shaped leaves.