Impatiens tricornis ?

Sorting our I. edgeworthii/scabrida/tricornis populations: I. scabrida from Tiger Fall Area Chakrata : 6 posts by 3 authors. Attachments (5)

This population from Tiger Fall area of Chakrata seems to fit the description in the Paper which led us here, and the absence of distinct lobule of I. edgeworthii and
“Lower sepal navicular or infundibuliform, 9–12 mm long, 5.5–8 mm deep (excluding the spur), tapering into a long upwardly or downwardly curved spur; spur 17–25 mm in overall length”.

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Second picture show good candidate for being true I. scabrida. In first picture curvature of spur is more like in I. racemosa. In other pictures I don’t see shape of lower sepal and spur.

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Thanks … They are from the same population and Shinobu Akiyama and Hideaki Ohba in their 2016, mention all these variations as quoted by me.

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So what we finally take this as ?

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Thanks …, If second image 532 is accepted as I. scabrida, all others from the same population should also be so. Shinobu Akiyama and Hideaki Ohba in their 2016 where they suggested the shift of several specimens to I. tricornis, mentioned characters of I. scabrida as “Lower sepal navicular or infundibuliform, 9–12 mm long, 5.5–8 mm deep (excluding the spur), tapering into a long upwardly or downwardly curved spur; spur 17–25 mm in overall length”.

Now I would like to explain my reluctance in giving names to plants known to me only from pictures.

There is a lot of confusion about this group and this confusion is only partially solved by paper by Akiyama and Ohba.

The same authors described another taxon from this group – I. bajurensis with gigantic flowers:

Akiyama S., Ohba H. 1993. Notes of Impatiens from west Nepal. J. Jap. Bot. 68(3): 156-158.

Recently Czech colleagues found interesting form in Nepal, with rather short lower sepal, but also rather short spur. This form has different chromosome number.

Also Rajib Gogoi in his book show 2 different forms with rather short lower sepal: one yellow flowered and one almost white flowered. I am not sure if his plants are true I. tricornuta and I. scabrida…
This way giving names to only superficially studied plants could be easily error.

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Thanks dear … for detailed. We can only hope that some younger who studies the Himalayan populations in field is able to reach meaningful conclusion. 

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