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Denison Balsam
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Denison Balsam
P Native Photo: Shrishail Kulloli
Common name: Denison Balsam
Botanical name: Impatiens denisonii    Family: Balsaminaceae (Balsam family)

Denison Balsam is a herb with flowers borne on a leafless flowering-stem. Flowering stems are twice to four times as long as leaves. Flowers are numerous, about 2.5 cm long, pink, racemed towards tip. Flower-stalks are 2.5-3.5 cm long. Lateral sepals are ovate. Lip is broadly ovate with three broad spreading lobes with dense cluster of petaloid hairs above conjuction of lobes; spurred. Wings with a thread-like ear enclosed in long recurved spur. Leaves arise from the base, are ovate heart-shaped, base deeply 2-lobed, sinus broad, blunt or pointed at tip, bristly rounded toothed, 7-15 x 7.5-10 cm, hairy above, hairless below; leaf-stalks shorter than leaves. Capsules are hairless; seeds numerous with spiral hairs. Denison Balsam is commonly found on moist rocks and tree trunks at altitudes of 1000-1600 m, in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It is endemic to the western slopes of Nilgiris. Flowering: July-November.

Identification credit: Shrishail Kulloli, Theurkauf W Photographed in Kerala.

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