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Impatiens

Riv. ex L. (1753)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Eudicot-Asterids Order: Ericales Family: Balsaminaceae Genus: Impatiens

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Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Succulent annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs.

Stems: Stems fleshy.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Whorled. Surfaces usually glabrous. Margins entire or toothed. Petiolate or sessile. Stipules absent or consisting of a pair of petiolar glands.

Flowers: Flowers solitary or in small cymes. Flowers bisexual (perfect), strongly irregular. Calyx of 3 sepals, rarely 5, the upper 2 small and usually green, the lower one petaloid, asymmetrically funnelform, usually with a long nectariferous spur. Corolla of 5 petals, the uppermost (standard) flat or helmet–shaped, the lower ones usually connate into lateral pairs (wings). Stamens 5, connate into a short tube: filaments flat, connate above; anthers dithecal, introrse, short, connate or coherent, forming a cap over the ovary, the sporogenous tissue divided into packets by a transverse partition. Ovary superior, 5-celled; placentation axile; ovules several to many per cell, pendulous and apotropous or anatropous; style 1, short; stigma 1 or 5.

Fruit: Capsules explosively dehiscent; loculicidal; the valves rubbery and becoming twisted in dehiscence. Seeds with endosperm scanty.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range:

Historical Distribution

Images

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Uses and Culture

USES

Natural History

Island Status

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

Specimens

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Notes

  • Description digitized by Pumehana
  • Description digitized from the Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawaii
  • succulent annual or perennial; Impatiens is the Latin word for impatient, referring to the sudden bursting of the capsules when touched

Bibliography

Name Published In: Sp. Pl.: 937 (1753)

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Scientific Name Authorship Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
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