Impatiens graciliflora - Slender-Flower Balsam

Slender-Flower Balsam is a herb about 30-60 cm tall, with stems erect, simple or branched, hairless. Flowers are borne at branch-ends, in many clusters of 3-4 flowers on flower-cluster-stalks, about 5-14 cm long, forming a many flowered, hairless inflorescence. Flowers are pink to pale purple, flower-stalk slender, about 1-2.5 cm long, bracts linear obovate, persistent, about 3 mm long. Sepals are 3, overlapping, 2 lateral ones flat, small, obliquely obovate, hairless, about 3-4 mm long, with appendages about 1.5-2 mm long. Posterior sepal (Lip) is large, petal-like, shallow boat-shaped, about 4-5 mm long, spurred, spur abruptly constricted, about 2.5-3.8 cm long. Upper standard petal, keeled or hoodlike, is about 4-5 mm long, with appendage of about 1 mm long, lateral ones (wings or alae), fused in pairs, about 7-10 mm long, basal lobes ovate, about 3-4 mm long, distal lobes transversely semiovate, about 4-6 mm long. Stamens are 5. Leaves alternate, elliptic-lanceshaped, about 5-12 x 1.5-4 cm across, base narrowed, margins rounded toothed with seriate glands at the lower margins of the leaf, tip tapering, lateral veins about 8-14 on either side of the midrib, green, minutely velvet-hairy both above and beneath, leaf-stalk slender, about 0.5-1.5 cm long. Capsule not bursting open, narrow spindle-shaped or linear, about 1.5-2.2 cm long, wider after half toward the tip, pointed in the tip, hairless, seeds few. Slender-Flower Balsam is found in East Himalaya, from Nepal to NE India to Myanmar, at altitudes of 1600-2900 m. Flowering: July-September.