Common name: Rugged Yellow Balsam, Scabby Balsam • Nepalese: अरेली Areli, तिउरी झार Tiuri jhar
Botanical name: Impatiens scabrida Family: Balsaminaceae (Balsam family) Synonyms: Impatiens cristata
Rugged Yellow Balsam is a rather robust often much branched
plant with large lemon yellow flowers spotted with brown within. Flowers are
borne several in each axil, 3-4 cm long, with a broad funnel-shaped lower sepal
suddenly contracted to a slender spur 1.5-3 cm long. Upper petal is rounded
and spurred. Lateral sepals pubescent, ovate-suborbiculate, 5-7 x 4-7 mm,
sometimes mottled brown-black. The short-stalked leaves are 5-15 cm, elliptic
to lancelike, long pointed, with acute teeth. Stem is finely hairy, 2-4 ft
tall. Rugged Yellow Balsam is found in shrubberies, forests and damp places,
at altitudes of 1200-3600 m, from Kashmir to Bhutan.
Flowering: May-September.
| Photographed around McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh. |
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