Impatiens phoenicea

Impatiens phoenicea Bedd., Madras J. Lit. Sci. n.s., 19: 175 1858. ;

Common name: Tyrian Red Balsam

India: Southern Western Ghats south of Pulneys and High Ranges of Kerala, sholas above 1,500 m. Tamil Nadu and Kerala as per BSI Flora of India;

S-India as per Catalogue of Life;

Perennial herbs, suffruticose, about 30-100 cm tall. Stems erect, simple or branched, woody at the base and wavy in outline. Leaves alternate, lanceolate-ovate, about 5-15 x 2.5-3.5 cm across, narrowed at both ends, base attenuate, margins serrate, serratures with long cilia, apex acute to shallow acuminate, lateral veins about 5-8 on either side of the midrib, deep green, shining, glabrous above and paler beneath, petiole slender, about 1.5-2.5 cm long. Inflorescence resupinate, solitary or 2-5 flowered racemes, peduncles as long leaves or slightly longer. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, uniform crimson or scarlet red with yellow at the centre, with veins radiating from yellow blotch, about 2.5 cm across, pedicel slender, about 1-2.5 cm long, bracts ovate, cordate, boat shaped, persistent, at the base of the pedicels, about 5 mm long, sepals 3, imbricate, 2 lateral ones flat, small, ovate, usually variegated with white color, glabrous, posterior sepal (Lip) large, petaloid, tubiform, red, spurred, spur gradually attenuated into a long recurved throughout its length, trumpet shaped, swollen and gland shaped at its apex, upper standard petal, vaulted, broadly ovate-suborbicular, red, lateral ones (wings or alae), lateral lobes cordate, overlapped with the much larger oblong terminal, distal lobe sessile, dorsal auricle absent, but bulged in its place. Stamens 5, anthers bi-locular, pollen yellow or white. Ovary 5 locular. Fruit indehiscent, capsule, narrow fusiform, swollen in the middle, glabrous. Seeds 4-5, compressed oval, about 2.5-3 mm across, light brown.

Pulney hills, altitude about 1500 m.

Asia: India: Kerala, Tamil Nadu

(Attributions- Ganeshaiah, K. N., UAS, Bangalore, India. Kailash, B. R., ATREE, Bangalore, India. Royal Norwegian Embassy grants. Indian Bioresource Information Network (IBIN), Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi from India Biodiversity Portal)