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Umbelled Balsam
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Umbelled Balsam
A Native Photo: Shrishail Kulloli
Common name: Umbelled Balsam
Botanical name: Impatiens umbellata    Family: Balsaminaceae (Balsam family)

Umbelled Balsam is an annual herb, 15-30 cm tall, with stems branched, naked below. Flower-cluster-stalks are 2.5-4.5 cm long; bracts lanceshaped, about 4 mm long, green; flower-stalks about 2 cm long. Flowers are borne in unbels at branch-ends, rarely in racemes, pinkish red. Lateral sepals are broadly ovate. Lip is boat-shaped; spur incurved, slender, 2.5-3.5 cm long; standard round. Wings are 2-lobed; lobes nearly equal. Leaves are arrange in rosettes, ovate-elliptic, rarely round, rounded toothed and fringed with hairs on crenatures at margin, blunt or pointed at tip, 2.5-5 cm long, membranous; leaf-stalks 0.6-3.5 cm long. Capsules are ellipsoid, about 8 mm long, turgid; seeds echinate. Umbelled Balsam is endemic to Southern Western Ghats, in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Flowering: August-December.

Identification credit: Shrishail Kulloli Photographed in Kerala.

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