Impatiens

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. balsaminaC55a
    |--I. chonocerasR44
    |--I. clavicornuVM03
    |--I. eubotryaH03
    |--I. fulva [incl. I. biflora]C55b
    |--I. griffithiiP88
    |--I. modestaVM03
    |--I. noli-tangereC55a
    |--I. occultansO88
    |--I. oncidioidesP88
    |--I. parvifloraC55b
    |--I. platypetalaR44
    |--I. platyphyllaP88
    |--I. ridleyiP88
    |--I. sakerianaM04
    |--I. sarcanthaP88
    |--I. steenisiiH03
    |--I. sulcataO88
    |--I. tirunelvelica Viswanathan & Manikandan 2003VM03
    |--I. wallerianaPT01
    `--I. wallichiiO88

*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.

[R44] Rayment, T. 1944. A critical revision of species in the zonata group of Anthophora by new characters (part I). Dobutu Gaku—Iho 1 (1): 1–33.

[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.