Metrosideros carminea is a forest liane or vine

Vine

A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...

 endemic to New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. It occurs in coastal and lowland forest from Te Paki in the north of the North Island

North Island

The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...

 south to Mahia Peninsula

Mahia Peninsula

The Mahia Peninsula is located on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, between the cities of Napier and Gisborne.-Geography:The peninsula is long and wide rising to its highest point at Rahuimokairoa reaching about above sea level. Mahia was initially an island which over time, has had...

 and Taranaki. It is one of a number of New Zealand Metrosideros

Metrosideros

Metrosideros is a genus of approximately 50 trees, shrubs, and vines native to the islands of the Pacific Ocean, from the Philippines to New Zealand and including the Bonin Islands, Polynesia, and Melanesia, with an anomalous outlier in South Africa. Most of the tree forms are small, but some are...

 species which live out their lives as vines, unlike the northern rata ( M.robusta

Metrosideros robusta

Northern rātā , is a huge forest tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows up to 25 m or taller, and usually begins its life as a hemiepiphyte high in the branches of a mature forest tree; over centuries the young tree sends descending and girdling roots down and around the trunk of its host,...

), which generally begins as a hemi-epiphyte and grows into a huge tree.

Description

Metrosideros carminea prefers warm moist habitats and grows up to 15 m. long or more, with the main stem several centimetres in diameter. The small, glossy, pointed leaves are thick, and often widest in the middle. The small rounded and shiny deep-green leaves have are borne on reddish new stems. Carmine rātā flowers from late winter to mid-spring, and has vibrant displays of bright red flowers in groups at the ends of the stems. The seed capsules ripen between late spring and early autumn. It climbs in the same way as ivy, sending out short adventitious roots to adhere to the trunks of host trees, penetrating and clinging to rough surfaces. The climbing shoots of juvenile plants grow rapidly and quickly extend the length of the plant. The short clinging roots usually die after about a year, so that when the vine is mature, the thick, twisted, rope-like stems hang free from the host like thick ropes.

Cultivation

This species of climbing rātā is often cultivated for its bright flowers that appear in the early spring. It is generally available from most retail nurseries in New Zealand, although most plants sold are from adult cuttings which grow into shrubs rather than climbers. Carmine Rata prefers a moist semi-shady position, sheltered from frost. There are several cultivars of M. carminea. Metrosideros ‘Red Carpet’ flowers freely in October (late spring in New Zealand). Another cultivar, Metrosideros ' Carousel' is an attractive dwarf shrub useful as a groundcover, having glossy lime-green leaves with broad gold margins and small carmine-red flowers in spring. It grows to 80cm. Metrosideros 'Ferris Wheel' has glossy deep green leaves. It bears bright carmine red flowers with golden stamens through spring. It grows to 90cm.