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Orange jewelweed

Orange jewelweed

Impatiens capensis

Identify the Orange jewelweed from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

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How common: Fairly rare

Invasive alien species – remove it if you can

Orange jewelweed is a North American annual with soft, juicy stems and hanging orange flowers covered in reddish-brown spots. It favors damp, shady places like stream banks and wet woods, and has been introduced in parts of Europe. The narrow seed pods burst open when ripe and scatter seeds around.

Did you know?

  • Classified in Finland as a nationally harmful invasive alien species.
  • Ripe pods spring open and can shoot seeds several meters.

About the species

Identification

30–70 cm tall, with smooth, watery stems that may branch near the top. Leaves are thin, oval and softly toothed. Flowers hang down, 2–3.5 cm long, bright orange and heavily red-brown spotted; at the back is a long curved tail that usually bends forward. After flowering, narrow green pods form and pop open at a touch, flinging seeds. Differs from the native touch-me-not (Impatiens noli-tangere) by its orange, strongly spotted flowers and more forward-bent tail (the native has larger plain yellow flowers). Small balsam has tiny pale yellow flowers; Himalayan balsam has much larger white to pink-purple ones. Flowers in Finland in July–September.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

herb-rich forest, yards and roadsides, shore, mire

Flowering

Jul–Sep

About the habitat

Grows in wet, shady places such as stream and river edges, floodplain woods, marshy margins and ditches. Local in southern Finland, especially around the shores and wetlands of Lake Lohjanjärvi; also a few sites in eastern Helsinki (Vartiokylä–Vuosaari) and along Lake Pyhäjärvi near Tampere and Nokia.

Sources

Photo: Becky Dill, CC0 1.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/6184759578

Text: Pinkka: Vieraslajien tunnistus - Palsamit, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39156

Text: FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39156

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A4nnenpalsami

See also