Impatiens agastyamalayensis - Agastyamala Balsam

Agastyamala Balsam is a branched, erect perennial herb up to 30 cm tall, with stems 4-angled, hairless except at upper reddish nodes, green or purple-tinged, with internodes 1.5-8 cm long. Flowers arise singly in leaf axils, 1.6-1.8 x 1.2-1.5 cm, purple or pale purple, with 2 red throat spots and whitish bases; flower-stalks 1.8-2.2 cm, densely white-hairy. Lateral sepals are ovate-lanceshaped, 8-9 x 2-3 mm; lower sepal 7-8 x 4-5 mm, sac-like, with a stout, straight, hairy purple spur about 2 mm long. Dorsal petal is 7-8 x 4-5 mm, broadly ovate, white, with a hairy green keel and pointed tip. Lateral united petals are 2-lobed, distal lobe 9-11 x 5-6 mm, purple, and basal lobe about 6 x 2 mm, pale purple or whitish. Leaves are opposite, in mutually perpendicular pairs, crowded towards the tip, 2.7-3.5 x 1.1-1.3 cm, oblong, pointed, rounded at base, sawtoothed and spinose, green and finely velvet-hairy above, pale greenish or whitish below, with 3 veins on each side; leaf-stalks 1-2 mm. Capsules are 1.2-1.4 cm, ellipsoid or inverted-lanceshaped, ridged, with 2-3 cm purple stalks. Agastyamala Balsam is narrowly endemic and so far known only from Agastyamala, Western Ghats, at Tamilnadu-Kerala border. Flowering: September-March.