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Scarlet Kanara Balsam
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Scarlet Kanara Balsam
A Native Photo: Shrishail Kulloli
Common name: Scarlet Kanara Balsam
Botanical name: Impatiens raziana    Family: Balsaminaceae (Balsam family)

Scarlet Kanara Balsam is a creeping or rising annual herb, rooting at nodes; roots fibrous; branchlets opposite, arising from basal nodes, 7-8 cm long; stems quadrangular, hairless. Leaves are opposite, ovate or ovate-lanceshaped, blunt at tip, narrowed at base, hairless, 4 x 7 mm, estipulate, stalked. Scarlet flowers are borne singly, in leaf-axils, carried on flower-stalks about 7 mm long, finely velvet-hairy. Lateral sepals are linear, elliptic, faintly serrulate, nerves 3, median distinct, furunculate, furuncles parallel. Lip is minute, yellow-tinged; spur arising slightly above base of lip. Standard is ovate, more or less mucronate, hairless. Wings are ovate, bilobed; basal lobes fin-shaped, transparent, honey guides prominent. Filaments are subulate, unequal. Capsules are 3-5 mm long, hairless; seeds shiny, black, smooth, spherical. Scarlet Kanara Balsam is endemic to Karnataka. Flowering: August-September.

Identification credit: Shrishail Kulloli Photographed in Kollur, Karnataka.

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