Impatiens racemosa - Yellow Long-Tailed Balsam

Yellow Long-Tailed Balsam is an annual are up to 2 ft tall with yellow flowers which have a long tail. Flowers are borne in 2-10 cm long, 4-10-flowered racemes in leaf axils or at branch ends. Flower-cluster-stalks are very long and slender, often over subtending leaves. Flower-stalks are slender, with persistent bracts at base; bracts ovate-lanceshaped, small, tip glandular. Flowers are yellow or pale yellow, small; buds rounded at tip. Lateral sepals are 2, red when dry, sickle shaped or obliquely ovate, small, 2-3 mm, with 1 gland at one side of upper margin, tip aristate. Lower sepal is boat-shaped, usually 1.1-1.8 cm deep including spur, narrowed into an incurved, long spur. Upper petal is hood-like, round, 3-5 × 5-8 mm, lower midvein not thickened; lateral united petals not clawed, 2-lobed; basal lobes ovate to round, 2-5 × 1.5-3 mm; distal lobes broadly shaped like the head of an ax, 0.7-1.4 × 0.4-0.7 cm, apically 2-lobed, tip rounded; ears rounded. Stem are erect, branched, hairless. Leaf-stalk is 1-2.5 cm; leaf blade elliptic-lanceshaped or elliptic-ovate, 5-10 × 2-4 cm, membranous, both surfaces hairless, bristly between teeth, lateral veins 7-9 pairs, base wedge-shaped, narrowed into leaf-stalk, margin rounded toothed, tip tapering.Capsule is linear or narrowly club-shaped, up to 2.5 cm. Seeds many, brown, oblong. Yellow Long-Tailed Balsam is found in grasslands along canals, mossy or stony slopes in the Himalayas, from Kashmir to Bhutan, Assam, S. Tibet, at altitudes of 1200-3900 m. Flowering: June-August.