1445

 

Impatiens balsamina L.

Synonym	:	Balsamina angustifolia Bl.
Family	:	Balsaminaceae
Local name	:	English- Balsam weed Malayalam-  ഓണപ്പു Mechingam Thottachinungi
Flowering and fruiting  period	:	March-October
Distribution	:	Indo-Malesia; introduced into many countries
Distribution in Kerala	:	Palakkad, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Kollam, Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Malappuram, Kozhikkode, Wayanad, Kannur, Thrissur
Habitat	:	Grasslands and banks of streams
Uses	:	Ornamental plant
Key botanical characters:  Annual herbs, about 50-90 cm tall. Stems erect, reddish or green, succulent, simple or branched, sparsely pubescent when young or glabrous, rootstock fibrous. Leaves alternate, variable lanceolate-elliptic to oblanceolate, about 3-16 x 1-3.5 cm across, base cuneate or attenuate, margins serrate, deccuring into a glandular petiole, apex acuminate, lateral veins about 4-8 on either side of the midrib, green above and paler beneath, sparsely or densely pubescent above and beneath, petiole slightly canaliculated above and with few stipitate glands, about 1-3 cm long, exstipulate. Inflorescence resupinate, axillary, solitary or 2-3 flowered in fascicles in the upper parts of the plant, usually glabrous. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, pink, yellow, blue, purple, mauve or white, pedicel slender, glabrous or pubescent, about 1-2 cm long, bracts linear, sepals 3, imbricate, 2 lateral ones flat, small, lanceolate-ovate, apex apiculate, about 2-3 mm long, posterior sepal (Lip) large, petaloid, obovate, cymbiform, apex mucronate, about 1.2-1.8 mm long, spurred, spur filiform, curved inwards, about 1.5-3.5 cm long, petals 5, upper standard petal, keeled or cucullate, orbicular-obcordate, crested terminating into a mucro, bilobed, apex shallow emarginated, about 1.2 cm long, lateral ones (wings or alae), fused in pairs, obovate, lateral lobe rounded, terminal lobe very large, showy, sessile, curved upwards, about 2-2.5 cm long, dorsal auricle ovate, apex rounded. Stamens 5, alternating with petals, free or fused towards the apex, filaments linear, anthers bi-locular. Ovary 5 locular, superior, oblong-ovoid, ovules many, 1 seriate in each cell, style 1, very short or absent, stigma 5 celled, sessile. Fruit indehiscent, capsule, narrow fusiform or ellipsoid, about 1.5-2 cm long, swollen in the middle, loculicidally dehiscing by 5 valves, springing away elastically from axis, tomentose with whitish hairs. Seeds many, globose or oval, about 1.5-3 mm across, blackish brown, shining, granular or glabrous, albumen absent.