Spotted Touch-me-not (Impatiens capensis)
- Family: Jewelweed (Balsaminaceae)
- Flowering: May-October.
- Field Marks: The orange, spotted flowers serve to distinguish this species from others in the genus.
- Habitat: Along streams, low woods.
- Habit: Annual succulent herbs with fibrous roots.
- Stems: Erect, branched, smooth, up to 8 feet tall.
- Leaves: Alternate, simple, ovate to elliptic, smooth, toothed, up to 3 inches long, sometimes on stalks longer than the blades.
- Flowers: 1-few from the axils of the leaves, orange and spotted with red-brown, on slender, drooping stalks.
- Sepals: 3, two of them small and green, the other one orange and projected backward into a curved spur up to 1/3 inch long.
- Petals: Orange spotted with red-brown, apparently 3 in number.
- Stamens: 5.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Capsules up to 1 inch long, splitting open elastically and expelling the seeds.
- Notes: The juice from this species counteracts the effect of poison ivy in some persons. The flowers are very attractive to hummingbirds.
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