• Scientific Name: Impatiens chinensis L.
• Ref: Sp. Pl.:937. 1753
• Synonyms:
  • Balsamina chinensis (L.) DC.
  • B. heterophylla (Wall.) G.Don
  • B. setacea Colebr. ex Hook.
  • Impatiens cosmia Hook.f.
  • I. crassicornu Hook.f.
  • I. heterophylla Wall.
  • I. setacea Colebr. ex Hook.
  • I. sinensis J.F.Gmel.
• Chinese Common Name: 华凤仙 Huá fèngxiān, 水边指甲花 shuǐbiān zhījia∙huā
• Family: Balsaminaceae
• Genus: Impatiens
• Distribution: Often beside ponds, streamsides, field margins, swamps; 100-1200 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Zhejiang [India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam].
• Photo: 10/05/2016, Longquan, Zhejiang

Plants annual, 30-60 cm tall. Stem erect in upper part, prostrate basally, slender, glabrous; nodes slightly swollen, with adventitious roots. Leaves opposite, sessile or subsessile; leaf blade gray-green abaxially, green adaxially, linear or linear-lanceolate, rarely obovate, 2-10 × 0.5-1 cm, rigidly papery, with stipular basal glands, abaxially glabrous, adaxially scabrous, lateral veins 5-7 pairs, inconspicuous, base subcordate, truncate, or rounded, margin remotely spiniform-serrate, apex acute or slightly obtuse. Inflorescences 1-flowered, or flowers 2- or 3-fascicled in leaf axils; peduncles absent. Pedicels 2-4.4 cm, slender, often scabrous hairy on one side, bracteate at base; bracts linear. Flowers purple-red or white, large. Lateral sepals 2, linear, ca. 1 × 0.1 cm, apex acute. Lower sepal funnelform, ca. 1.5 cm deep, striate, gradually narrowed into an incurved or involute, slender spur. Upper petal orbicular, ca. 1 cm in diam., apex emarginate, mucronulate, abaxial midvein narrowly carinate; lateral united petals not clawed, 1.4-1.5 cm, 2-lobed; basal lobes suborbicular, small; distal lobes broadly obovate to dolabriform (axe-shaped), apex rounded-obtuse; auricle narrow. Stamens 5; filaments linear, compressed; anthers ovoid-orbicular, apex obtuse. Ovary fusiform. Capsule elliptic, turgid at middle, glabrous. Seeds black, globose, ca. 2 mm in diam., shiny. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Sep-Nov. 2n = 16. (Flora of China)

10/05/2016, Longquan, Zhejiang