Impatiens leptura - Slender-Tail Balsam

Slender-Tail Balsam is an erect, unbranched herb, about 2 ft tall, with stems somewhat angled, greenish. Flower-cluster-stalks arise in leaf-axils, 4-6.5 cm long, hairless, 2-3-flowered; bracts ovate, about 4 mm long, hairless, green, falling off. Flower-stalks are 1.5-2.5 cm long, fascicled. Flowers are about 2.5 cm across, pinkish. Lateral sepals are broadly ovate, pointed, 4.5-5.5 mm long, green. Lip is bowl-shaped, pointed, 1-1.3 cm long; spur slender, tapering, incurved. Standard is broadly oblong, blunt. Distal lobes of wings are 6-7 mm long, green becoming pinkish at edges. Leaves are alternate, ovate to elliptic-lanceshaped, pointed or tapering at tip, wedge-shaped at base, rounded toothed along margins with short cilia in sinuses, 4.5-10 x 2.5 cm, lateral nerves in 5 pairs, rising almost at right angles to midnerve, hairless with short and stiff hairs on nerves above, pale and somewhat glaucous below; leaf-stalks 1-7 cm long. Capsules are ellipsoid, beaked, about 1.5 cm long. Slender-Tail Balsam is endemic to Southern W. Ghats in Anamalais and High Ranges (ldukki distt.) in evergreen forest margins at altitudes of 1300-1650 m, in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Flowering: May-September.