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Large-Sepal Sticky Balsam
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Large-Sepal Sticky Balsam
P Native Photo: Paulmathi Vinod
Common name: Large-Sepal Sticky Balsam
Botanical name: Impatiens viscida    Family: Balsaminaceae (Balsam family)

Large-Sepal Sticky Balsam is a herb, 0.5-1 m high, branched, rooting at lower nodes; stems angled. Leaves are alternate, elliptic-lanceshaped, sawtoothed at margin, 5-8 cm long, velvet-hairy beneath; nerves stiff-hairy on both surfaces. Flowers are borne in leaf axils, in umbels or racemes, deep pink or light purple, carried on flower-cluster-stalks 5-10 cm long, sticky; flower-stalks are sticky too. Lateral sepals are nearly round, as long as the upper petal. Lower sepals (Lip) is boat-shaped; spur long, incurved. Distal lobes of wings are large, nearly round. Capsules is ellipsoid, hairless, not splitting open, about 8 mm long, tip beaked, swollen. Seeds are many, spherical or oval, about 1.5 mm across, hairy, brown. Large-Sepal Sticky Balsam is endemic to Southern Western Ghats. Flowering: April-December.

Identification credit: Shrishail Kulloli, P.S. Sivaprasad Photographed in Kodaikanal Hills, Tamilnadu.

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