This is am unusual climber which tends to draw in everyones attention. I use this Western Australian species whenever I need a quick growing cover to screen, suppress weeds or create shade. The large bright green leaves are broad for a Kennedia and the pea flowers hide a little amongst the foliage, but once those striking flowers have been noticed you realise how prolifically this climber flowers.

In the image below, you can see two specimens grown over the post of a north facing deck, these vines provide well needed shade and a veil of foliage to look through into the garden.

The showy black and yellow flowers are attractive to nectar feeding birds and pollinating insects, and if left to fruit the seed pods provide our seed eating birdlife with valuable food.

There is a lack of black in our national floral range, I can think of only three off the top of my head and this striking Kennedia is one of them, this is Kennedia nigricans! the others are Macropedia, Banksia spinulas to a certain extent and a Gastrolobium, if you know of more please let me know.

Kennedia nigricans is a rambunctious climber with large luscious green leaves and amazing black and yellow pea flowers in Winter, apparently it can flower year round, however I have only seen it flower in Winter here in NSW.

Kennedia nigricans is from Western Australia and prefers a well-drained soil with a heavily mulched root system to retain moisture. It will happily grow in full sun or part shade, it does seem to suffer from strong winds and frosts and therefore prefers a protected position.

If the foliage is damaged by the cold or wind it will return quickly with the warmer weather, pruning will also help increase the density of the plant and encourage it to live longer.

This is a very vigorous climber that also does well as a ground cover, reaching 3-4 metres wide or high.
If given a strong structure to climb on Kennedia nigricans makes an excellent screening plant, the tendrils weep along with the flowers giving it a tropical look.

If you have room in your garden this is definitely a plant to give a try, nobody or bird can miss those black and yellow flowers, they are just too unusual!