Impatiens verecunda - Blushing Balsam

Blushing Balsam is a small herb, 10-15 cm tall, flaccid, hairless; stems simple or branched. Leaves are alternate, ovate or ovate-rotundate, pointed or tapering, base rounded, rounded toothed, 4-6 cm long, membranous, nerves 3-4; leaf-stalks slender, 2 - 3 cm long. Flowers are borne in 2-4-flowered umbels, about 2 cm across, rose colored. Flower-stalks are 1-2 cm long, deflexed in fruits; bracts lanceshaped, 3-5 mm long. Lateral sepals are ovate, flat at base, 6-7 mm long, 5-nerved. Lip is round, 6-7 mm; spur blunt, less than half the length of limb of lip. Standard is round or oblong, 6-9 mm across, with a blunt or pointed apiculum. Wings are stalkless, 1.3-1.5 cm long, 2-lobed; basal lobes round, minute, more or less folding over distal lobes from base; distal lobes trigonous or axe-shaped, larger than basal ones; dorsal ear obscure. Capsules are ellipsoid, beaked, many-seeded; seeds obovoid or spherical, 2-2.5 mm, compressed, velvet-hairy. Blushing Balsam is found in Southern W. Ghats, on steep marshy embankment under trees. at about 1300 m elevation. This plant had not been located since the type collection made by A. Meebold.