Pale touch-me-not is a fast-growing annual plant of wet, shady places, native to eastern Canada and the eastern United States, with yellow, spurred flowers. Its key to growing is consistently moist soil and partial shade.
Family
Balsaminaceae (Balsamin family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Part shade, Shade
Water
Keep soil consistently moist and never let it dry out.
Soil
Rich, moist, humus-heavy soil or a moisture-retentive potting mix.
Temperature
15–25 °C; frost-tender annual, protect from frost.
How easy
Easy
Safety
Not toxic to cats or dogs (ASPCA).
Native range
E. Canada to C. & E. U.S.A.
Climate
temperate
About
Impatiens pallida, with the common names pale jewelweed, or yellow jewelweed, is a flowering annual plant in the family Balsaminaceae native to Canada and the United States. It grows in moist to wet soils, generally alongside the closely related Impatiens capensis, producing flowers from midsummer through fall.
Where it grows
I. pallida is native in the United States from North Dakota to the north and west, Georgia to the south, and Maine to the east. In Canada, it is native in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. It can be found in wet, soggy soils, such as along ponds and streams, in swamps, in moist deciduous woodlands, and in wet thickets.
Uses
Like I. capensis, the young shoots can be boiled (with two changes of water) as a potherb, and the seeds are also edible.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Impatiens pallida 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.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.