槽茎凤仙花 cao jing feng xian hua

Impatiens gigantea Edgeworth (1846), not Arnott (1835).

Plants annual, (20-)60-120 cm tall. Stem erect, terete, robust, conspicuously grooved, simple or branched in upper part, sparsely glandular at nodes. Leaves opposite or verticillate in upper part of stem; petiole (0.5-)1.5-3.5 cm, sparsely glandular or without glands; leaf blade elliptic-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, (4-)6-20 × 2-5.5 cm, with red or purple stipitate basal glands, lateral veins 8-12 pairs, base cuneate or subrounded, slightly inequilateral, margin crenate-serrate, apex acuminate or long acuminate. Inflorescences subcorymbose-racemose, many flowered; peduncles 3.5-9 cm. Pedicels swollen at apex, bracteate at base; bracts pink or purple-red, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate. Flowers purplish pink, large, 3-3.5 cm, 3-3.5 cm deep. Lateral sepals 2, obliquely ovate-cordate, ca. 7 × 4 mm, apex mucronulate. Lower sepal saccate, 1.5-1.8 cm deep, abruptly narrowed into an incurved spur 4-8 mm. Upper petal cucullate, suborbicular, apex curved-rostellate, abaxially not carinate; lateral united petals not clawed, 2.8-3.2 cm, broad; basal lobes subdolabriform to oblong-ovate, ca. 1.4 × 0.6 cm, apex acute, cuspidate; distal lobes broadly dolabriform to broadly elliptic or ovate, ca. 2 × 1 cm, apex acute. Anthers obtuse. Capsule pendulous, clavate, 2-2.5 cm. Seeds obovoid, rugose. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep. 2n = 18.

Understories of Picea forests, along canals, shaded moist places; 3000-4000 m. S Xizang [Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Nepal].

According to the literature, the seeds are edible.