Impatiens parasitica Bedd.

Impatiens species are annual, perennial or suffruticose herbs, terrestrial or sometimes epiphytic. Stems erect or procumbent, woody, herbaceous, succulent, stoloniferous or monoliform, usually rooting at lower nodes. Leaves radical or cauline, opposite, alternate, whorled or verticellate, variable, lanceolate-oblong to ovate-elliptic, base cuneate to obtuse, margins entire to crenate-dentate, apex obtuse to acuminate, petiolate or subsessile, exstipulate, sometimes with stipular gland at the base of petiole. Inflorescence resupinate, axillary subumbellate, racemes, fascicled or solitary. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, pedicellate, bracts persistent or caducous, sepals 3 or rarely 5, imbricate, 2 lateral ones flat, small, linear lanceolate-ovate, usually green, posterior sepal (Lip) large, petaloid, bag-shaped, navicular or saccate or spurred, petals 5, free, red, scarlet, purple, greenish or white, upper standard petal, flat, keeled or cucullate, entire or crested, usually lobed, lateral ones (wings or alae), fused in pairs, entire or lobed, sometimes with slender appendage at the base, Stamens 5, alternating with petals, free or fused towards the apex, connate or sub-connate, somewhat like a ring surrounding the style and stigma, filaments broad and short, anthers bi-locular. Ovary 5 locular, superior, oblong-ovoid, ovules many, 1 seriate in each cell, style 1, very short or absent, stigma 5 celled, sessile. Fruit indehiscent, capsule, often asymmetrical, swollen in the middle, loculicidally dehiscing by 5 valves, springing away elastically from axis, glabrous or hairy. Seed flattened or oval, smooth or tuberculate, glabrous or hairy, albumen absent.

Flowering class: Dicot Habit: Herb

Flowering and fruiting: June-November

Impatiens species flowers are complete, bisexual, i.e., with functional male (androecium) and female (gynoecium), including stamens, carpels and ovary. Pollination is entomophilous i.e., by insects, or cleistogamy i.e., by self or allogamy i.e., by cross pollination. Flowering/Fruiting: May—December.

Seeds primarily dispersed by autochory i.e., self dispersal, may be later by zoochory i.e., dispersal by birds or animals, anthropochory i.e., dispersal by humans.

Perennial epiphytic herbs, about 5-50 cm tall. Stems erect, succulent to woody, monoliform or rarely branched, rind leathery, grayish, with rough scars of leaves and inflorescence, glabrous. Leaves scattered, dense towards apex, ovate-lanceolate to elliptic, about 3-7 x 2-5 cm across, base cuneate or attenuate with extrapetiolar glands near the base, margins shallow crenate with few incurved bristles, apex acute to acuminate, lateral veins about 4-6 on either side of the midrib, green above and paler beneath, petiole slender, about 1-2 cm long. Inflorescence resupinate, axillary sub-umbellate racemes, in the upper parts of the plant, peduncles about 2-3 cm long, usually glabrous. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, pedicel slender, 2 on each peduncle, about 2 cm long, bracts minute, sepals 3, imbricate, 2 lateral ones flat, small, linear obovate to obliquely oblong, inequilateral, apex abruptly acute, fleshy, extended characteristically in bud, somewhat like a pendent when mature, green, with 2-4 veins, posterior sepal (Lip) large, obovate, shallow navicular, deep bright red, fleshy, urceolate, spurred, spur involute, stout, upper standard petal, saccate, suborbicular, crested foliaceous, lateral ones (wings or alae), greenish yellow, fused in pairs, basal lobes ovate much smaller than the distal lobes, both the lobes hide entirely in the saccate lip, margins entire, sometimes with slender appendage at the base, curved upwards, about 1-2 cm long, dorsal auricle about 1-2 mm long. Stamens 5, alternating with petals, free or fused towards the apex, connate or sub-connate, somewhat like a ring surrounding the style and stigma, filaments broad and short, anthers bi-locular. Ovary 5 locular, superior, oblong-ovoid, ovules many, 1 seriate in each cell, style 1, very short or absent, stigma 5 celled, sessile. Fruit indehiscent, capsule, narrow fusiform, about 7-12 mm long, swollen in the middle, grassy green, glabrous. Seeds numerous, small.

Impatiens species are susceptible to various insect pests, virus and fungi, affecting leaves, fruits and roots.

Notes: Western Ghats, Epiphyte

Epiphytic on moist tree trunks of Southern Western Ghats, altitude about 1000-2100 m.

Shola forests

Southern Western Ghats

Not evaluated (IUCN); Taxon. Monogr. Impatiens W. Ghats (EN B1).