Impatiens

Busy Lizzie Impatiens walleriana, copyright Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz.

Belongs within: Ericales.

Impatiens, busy Lizzies, is a genus of usually fleshy-stemmed plants found in Eurasia and North America that bear fleshy fruits that dehisce explosively when touched to scatter seeds.

Characters (from Flora of China): Annual or perennial herbs (rarely epiphytic or subshrubs). Stems usually succulent. Leaves simple. Flowers bisexual, protandrous, zygomorphic. Petals 5, free, lateral petals united in pairs. Stamens 5, alternating with petals, connate or nearly so into a ring surrounding ovary and stigma, falling off in one piece before stigma ripens; filaments short, flat with a scale-like appendage inside; anthers 2-celled, connivent, opening by a slit or pore. Gynoecium 4- or 5-carpellate, syncarpous; ovary superior, 4- or 5-loculed, each locule with 2 to many anatropous ovules; style 1, very short or more or less absent; stigmas 1–5. Fruit a 4- or 5-valved loculicidal fleshy capsule, usually dehiscing elastically. Seeds dispersed explosively from opening valves, without endosperm; testa smooth or tuberculate.

Impatiens [Balsaminaceae]
    |--I. balsamina C55a
    |--I. clavicornu VM03
    |--I. eubotrya H03
    |--I. fulva [incl. I. biflora] C55b
    |--I. griffithii P88
    |--I. modesta VM03
    |--I. noli-tangere C55a
    |--I. occultans O88
    |--I. oncidioides P88
    |--I. parviflora C55b
    |--I. platyphylla P88
    |--I. ridleyi P88
    |--I. sakeriana M04
    |--I. sarcantha P88
    |--I. steenisii H03
    |--I. sulcata O88
    |--I. tirunelvelica Viswanathan & Manikandan 2003 VM03
    |--I. walleriana PT01
    `--I. wallichii O88

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[C55a] Candolle, A. de. 1855a. Géographie Botanique Raisonée: Ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle vol. 1. Librairie de Victor Masson: Paris.

[C55b] Candolle, A. de. 1855b. Géographie Botanique Raisonée: Ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle vol. 2. Librairie de Victor Masson: Paris.

[H03] Heads, M. 2003. Ericaceae in Malesia: vicariance biogeography, terrane tectonics and ecology. Telopea 10 (1): 311–449.

[M04] Mayr, G. 2004. Old World fossil record of modern-type hummingbirds. Science 304: 861–864.

[O88] Ohba, H. 1988. The alpine flora of the Nepal Himalayas: an introductory note. In: Ohba, H., & S. B. Malla (eds) The Himalayan Plants vol. 1. The University Museum, University of Tokyo, Bulletin 31: 19–46.

[PT01] Pemberton, L. M. S., S.-L. Tsai, P. H. Lovell & P. J. Harris. 2001. Epidermal patterning in seedling roots of eudicotyledons. Annals of Botany 87: 649–654.

[P88] Polunin, I. 1988. Plants and Flowers of Malaysia. Times Editions: Singapore.

[VM03] Viswanathan, M. B., & U. Manikandan. 2003. A new species of Balsaminaceae, Impatiens tirunelvelica, from peninsular India. Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 45: 189–194.