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Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Common
Name

Scientific
Name

Plant
Family

Garden
Location

Prime
Season
Spotted Touch-me-not
Impatiens capensis Meerb.
Touch-me-not
Woodland
Late Summer to Autumn
Other names and notes

(Jewelweed, Spotted Jewelweed, Wild Balsam). Flowers: Jewelweeds, or Touch-me-nots, have 1 inch flowers hanging on a long stalk and the flowers have a curved nectar spur at the back end. Flowers arise from the leaf axils, usually in a cluster of up to 3. Flowers have 5 petals but two are united so that it appears there are only 3, one forming the upper lip. There are 3 sepals, with the larger forming the cone of the back of the flower and the spur and the other two are a much lighter color and seen on the top of the corolla. Five stamens and 1 pistil. Leaves are egg shape with coarse teeth and slender long stalks. Stems are succulent, 2 to 5 feet high, easily broken. The fruit is a pod that when mature will explode and expel the seed some distance - hence the common name of "touch-me-not". Seeds are longer than wide, brown with lighter ridges. These are plants of moist places and are true annuals. Because of this their abundance varies from year to year - and they are found only in moist areas of the Garden during drier years.

Spotted Touch-me-not has orange flowers with red-brown spots. The spur on the back bends underneath and forward and upward and is usually parallel to the flower but not at a right angle downward like the Pale Touch-me-not (Impatiens pallida), however, there are variations depending on the maturity of the flower. You will see this plant listed with an older species name -I. biflora. The juice of Impatiens capensis is somewhat toxic to animals.
Spotted Jewelweed
Spotted Jewelweed leaf
 
Spotted Jewelweed
Spotted Jewelweed
Touch-ne-not seed dispersion: Below left is the seed capsule approaching maturity. When the capsule is ready, touching it with slight pressure will cause the plant material inside to suddenly form a twisted coil (right) and disperse the seeds to quite a distance.
Touch-me-not seed pod Touch-me-not seed
 
Spotted Jewelweed
Below: Touch-me-not can occupy extensive areas in a year with adequate moisture as this photo indicates. This is a section of the Eloise Butler bog on Aug. 27, 2009.
Jewelweed in the Eloise Butler Wildflower garden bog
 

Notes: This plant is indigenous to the Garden area. Eloise Butler catalogued it on May 25, 1907. The plant is widely distributed in the United States and in most counties of Minnesota except for a few in the dryer SW corner. It is native to the state and can become invasive. For a story about its invasive nature in the Garden during Eloise Butler and Martha Crones tenures as curator read this excerpt from the History of the Bog.

Eloise Butler wrote of Jewelweed: "Every inch of space on low, moist soil not held firmly by tufted meadow grasses and sedges is occupied by the Wild Balsam. [Note: “Wild Balsam” is derived from the Latin family name for the species, BALSAMINACEAE and in English as the Touch-me-not Family.] The smooth, glossy stem has a translucent appearance, and its joints are swollen, affording another proof, of course, that rheumatism is induced by dampness! The leaves are thin and delicate. When dipped in water, their under-surfaces appear to gleam like quicksilver, an appearance due to tiny hairs that catch the water and enmesh air bubbles. The hairs keep the pores that are abundant on the under side of the leaves from being clogged with water. Some water beetles show the same phenomenon when they dive; but, in their case, the air bubbles supply them with the requisite oxygen during the period of immersion. Little girls are familiar with the plant as Jewelweed. By means of the curved nectar spur, they hook the flowers in their ears and are fine ladies, for the nonce, with gold ear-drops. The most common species of Balsam has flowers usually spotted with brown, of varying shades of orange and yellow, and sometimes pink or white. This is called Impatiens biflora. I pallida has larger, pale yellow, often unspotted flowers, with stouter spurs. The term Impatiens refers to the nature of the seed-vessel, the origin of another common name, touch-me-not. If you gently press the plump, ripe seed-pod between your thumb and forefinger you will be startled by its breaking up into writhing, wormlike pieces, and by the seeds snapping out several feet into space." Published Aug 20, 1911, Minneapolis Sunday Tribune.

Lore and Uses: The Ojibwa used the thick juice that comes from a stem, when broken, to apply to skin rashes and rubbed it on the head for a headache. The application to relieve skin irritations was also known in Britain. The sac in the spur of the flower contains a liquid that soothes a rash of poison ivy. Modern testing has shown that the juice contains chemicals that are considered fungicides and therefore would be slightly poisonous to grazing animals.

  
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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.  
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