FoI
East-Himalayan Flowering Balsam
Share Foto info
East-Himalayan Flowering Balsam
A Native Photo: M. Sawmliana
Common name: East-Himalayan Flowering Balsam
Botanical name: Impatiens florigera    Family: Balsaminaceae (Balsam family)

East-Himalayan Flowering Balsam is a herb with stems erect, round, hairless. Inflorescence is borne solitary, in leaf-axils, in the upper parts of the plant, usually hairless. Flowers are bisexual, lilac to cream white, flower-stalk slender, about 1.5-2 cm long, sepals 3, overlapping, 2 lateral ones flat, small, linear lanceshaped, hairless, about 2-3 mm long. Posterior sepal (Lip) is large, petal-like, shaped like the end of a horn, about 5-8 mm long and 9-12 mm deep, spurred, spur constricted gradually, thread-like, about 4-5 mm long. Upper standard petal is round, many veined, tip shallow notched, about 4 x 3 mm across, lateral ones (wings or alae), fused in pairs, bilobed, basal lobes triangular-ovate, distal lobes narrow ovate, narrow just above middle. Stamens are 5, anthers bi-locular. Leaves are alternate, lanceshaped-ovate to narrow elliptic, about 2.5-9.5 x 1.5-3 cm across, base wedge-shaped or narrowed, margins shallow sawtoothed with few thread-like appendages towards base of the leaf, tip deeply pointed to tapering, lateral veins about 5-11 on either side of the midrib, papery, green above and paler and whitish beneath. Leaf-stalk is slender, about 2.5-6 cm long, stipular glands, about 1.5 mm long. Fruit is a not-splitting capsule, narrow spindle-shaped, about 1.5-1.2 cm across, swollen in the middle, hairless. East-Himalayan Flowering Balsam is found in East Himalaya,

Identification credit: Rajib Gogoi Photographed in Aizawl, Mizoram.

• Is this flower misidentified? If yes,