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Impatiens
Also called Touch Me Not, Balsams, Jewelweed, Snapweeds, Touch Me Nots, Jewelweeds And Impatiens
Impatiens is a large genus of more than 1,000 mostly annual or perennial herbs, including the popular garden busy lizzie (I. walleriana) and New Guinea impatiens. Grow them in shade to part shade with steady moisture, as they wilt quickly when dry.
Impatiens is a genus of more than 1,000 species of flowering plants, widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere and the tropics. Together with the genus Hydrocera (one species), Impatiens make up the family Balsaminaceae.
Common names in North America include impatiens, jewelweed, touch-me-not, snapweed and patience. As a rule-of-thumb, "jewelweed" is used exclusively for Nearctic species, and balsam is usually applied to tropical species. In the British Isles by far the most common names are impatiens and busy lizzie, especially for the many varieties, hybrids and cultivars involving Impatiens walleriana. "Busy lizzie" is also found in the American literature. Impatiens glandulifera is commonly called policeman's helmet in the UK, where it is an introduced species.
Impatiens are popular garden annuals. Hybrids, typically derived from busy lizzie (I. walleriana) and New Guinea impatiens (I. hawkeri), have commercial importance as garden plants. I. walleriana is native to East Africa, and yielded 'Elfin' series of cultivars, which was subsequently improved as the 'Super Elfin' series. Double-flowered cultivars also exist.
Other Impatiens species, such as African queen (I. auricoma), garden jewelweed (I. balsamina), blue diamond impatiens (I. namchabarwensis), parrot flower (I. psittacina), Congo cockatoo (I. niamniamensis), Ceylon balsam (I. repens), and poor man's rhododendron (I. sodenii), are also used as ornamental plants.
The genus Impatiens occurs in Africa, Eurasia and North America. Two species (Impatiens turrialbana and Impatiens mexicana) occur in isolated areas in Central America (southern Mexico and Costa Rica). Most Impatiens species occur in the tropical and subtropical mountain forests in Africa, Madagascar, the Himalayas, the Western Ghats (southwest India) and southeast Asia. In Europe only a single Impatiens species (Impatiens noli-tangere) occurs naturally. However, several neophytic species exist.
Impatiens contain 2-methoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone, an anti-inflammatory and fungicide naphthoquinone that is an active ingredient in some formulations of Preparation H.
Impatiens arguta · Spotted snapweed · Jewelweed · Impatiens denisonii · Himalayan Balsam · New Guinea Impatiens · Touch-me-not Balsam · Hardy Impatiens · Pale touch-me-not · Impatiens pseudoviola · Ceylon Balsam · Impatiens stenantha
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Impatiens by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
