野凤仙花 ye feng xian hua

Impatiens japonica Franchet & Savatier.

Plants annual, (30-)40-70(-100) cm tall. Stem erect, usually reddish tinged, many branched, with red-purple glandular hairs on branchlets and peduncles. Leaves alternate or subverticillate at upper parts of stem and branches, upper leaves smaller and subsessile; petiole to 5 cm; leaf blade pale green abaxially, green adaxially, rhombic-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, rarely broadly lanceolate, 3-14 × 3-7 cm, abaxially glabrous or veins with multicellular hairs, adaxially glabrous or nearly so, lateral veins 7 or 8 pairs, base cuneate, slightly obtuse in upper leaves, rarely obtuse-rounded, margin sharply serrate, teeth mucronulate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences in upper leaf axils, 4-10-flowered; peduncles ascending, 3-10 cm. Pedicels 1-2 cm, slender, bracteate at base; bracts ovate-lanceolate to triangular-ovate, 3-5 mm. Flowers purplish or purple-red, purple spotted, large, 2.5-4 cm deep. Lateral sepals 2, dark purple-red, broadly ovate, 0.6-1 × 0.4-0.6 cm, apex acute. Lower sepal dark purple spotted and yellowish, campanulate-funnelform, 2.5-3 cm deep, gradually narrowed into an involute spur; mouth oblique, 1.5-1.8 cm, tip acuminate. Upper petal ovate-tetragonous to oblate, ca. 1.2 cm wide, apex mucronulate, abaxial midvein carinate; lateral united petals clawed, ca. 2 cm, 2-lobed; basal lobes ovate or ovate-oblong, apex curved, acuminate; distal lobes ovate to oblong-dolabriform. Filaments linear, 3-4 mm; anthers ovoid, apex obtuse. Ovary erect, fusiform. Capsule fusiform-cylindric, 1-1.8 cm. Seeds brown, few, elliptic, ca. 4 mm, tuberculate. Fl. Aug-Sep.

By streams, along canals; 1000-1100 m. Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong [Japan, Korea, Russia (Far East)].

Impatiens textorii f. pallescens (Honda) H. Hara (Impatiens textorii var. pallescens Honda) differs in having a white flower and a purple spotted lower sepal.