unknown Impatient

[daveyp1970]

could somebody i.d this  Impatient for me.It stood only 1-2 ft tall.

[fleurbleue]

Hello davey, look at this web site for help perhaps
 http://www.pepinierefleursdusud.com/fichesrecap/recap-impatiens.html

[Oron Peri]

could somebody i.d this  Impatient for me.It stood only 1-2 ft tall.

Dave,
It looks like I. corchorifolia, native to  a few provinces of China.

[arisaema]

Looks like the UK native I. parviflora...

[Lesley Cox]

Why Touch Me Not? The only one I've grown is that tall species from the Himalaya or somewhere, which is pink, and seeds all over the place. It's a nuisance but I still like it.

[Maggi Young]

Why Touch Me Not ?

Touch Me Not because the seed dispersal mechanism is explosive..... one has only to touch the capsule to p cause it to "POP" and shoot the seed over a long distance..... several metres. This is why these plants are such successful colonisers.... hence the nuisance status of the Himalayan Balsam which is invading large tracts of the UK and other countire outside it's native range.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Maggi. I have just a few at a time and the unwanted ones are very easy to pull out before they get big and flower.

It's odd that many "weeds" in the UK or elsewhere are just about acceptable here. This Impatiens is one which is only occasionally seen in a garden and I've never seen it naturalized anywhere. Rhodo is another (you know, the purple one that is all over Scotland and Wales. Names escapes me for the moment.)-  R. ponticum!  That too is unknown outside the occasional garden here yet considering the way some others behave, gorse, broom and Rhodo x Cilpinense in my own garden, the country should be covered with it. This last comes up in my paths, grass and in just about every seed pot that is outside in the air. Also in pots and troughs, a blasted nuisance.

[daveyp1970]

Arisaema i think you nailed it mate,i did not realise we have members of this genus as natives,i just thought they were introduced plants.

[Neil]

According to The Postcode Plants Database Impatiens parviflora is an introduced plant

[Maggi Young]

It is Impatiens noli-tangere that is the UK native.

[gote]

Why Touch Me Not ?

Touch Me Not because the seed dispersal mechanism is explosive..... one has only to touch the capsule to p cause it to "POP" and shoot the seed over a long distance..... several metres.

If one tries to grab the seed pod between thumb and forefinger it "wriggles" like a vigorous larva or millipede. Something to make unsuspecting girls do whwn one is in "that age"
Göte