1258

       

Impatiens walleriana Hook.f.

                    

Synonym	:	Impatiens giorgii De Wild
Family	:	Balsaminaceae
Local name	:	English    - chinese balsam
Flowering and fruiting period	:	October to January
Distribution	:	Native to Africa, Eurasia, New Guinea
Habitat	:	In damp, often shaded, places in upland and coastal rain-forest, particularly in riverine thickets, gullies and damp rocky places; 0–2000 m.
Endemic / Exotic	:	Exotic
Uses	:	Ornamental
Key botanical characters : Rather succulent perennial 30–70(–80) cm. tall; stems simple or branched, often forming flat-topped or rounded plants, glabrous, rarely slightly pubescent at the shoot apices, green or reddish-tinged, occasionally rooting at the lower nodes. Leaves spirally arranged; petiole (1–)3–6(–8) cm. long, with 1–3 extra-floral nectaries scattered along the length; lamina broadly elliptical or ovate to oblong-elliptical or oblong-ovate, Flowers in axillary racemes, usually 2–3(–5)-flowered, sometimes 1-flowered, but then ‘pedicel’ always with a bract near the middle, very variable in colour and size, orange, scarlet or crimson-red, pink, mauve, purplish, violet, or occasionally white, the sepals often whitish or greenish white.Lateral sepals 2 (1 pair) ovate-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, acute, 3–7 mm. long, glabrous. L Dorsal petal broadly obcordate or obovate, 11–19 mm. long, 13–25 mm. broad, flattish or slightly cupped, dorsally with a narrow crest terminating in a short acute point.  Fruit fusiform, 15–20 mm. long, 4–6 mm. broad, glabrous.