Buzzy Lizzy

A beautiful ornamental plant, this species is very variable in leaf shape and flower color.

Plants perennial, succulent, green or reddish tinged, 30-70 cm tall, simple or branched, glabrous or rarely slightly pubescent at shoot apices. Leaves alternate; petiole 1.5-6 cm, with 1 or 2, rarely few, stipitate glands; leaf blade broadly elliptic or ovate to oblong-elliptic, 4-12 × 2.5-5.5 cm, with 1 or 2, rarely few, stipitate basal glands, glabrous, lateral veins 5-8 pairs, base cuneate, rarely ± rounded, attenuate into petiole, margin crenate-denticulate, apex acute or acuminate, or somewhat cuspidate. Inflorescences in leaf axils of upper stem and branches, usually 2(-5)-flowered, sometimes 1-flowered; peduncles 3-5 cm. Pedicels 1.5-3 cm, slender, bracteate at base; bracts linear-lanceolate or subulate, ca. 2 mm, apex acute. Flowers variable in size and color: red, crimson-red, pink, purple-red, purplish violet, or white. Lateral sepals 2, greenish or whitish, ovate-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 3-7 mm, apex acute. Lower sepal shallowly navicular, 0.8-1.5 cm deep, abruptly constricted into a curved spur; spur filiform, 2.4-4 cm. Upper petal broadly obcordate or obovate, 1.5-1.9 × 1.3-2.5 cm, apex emarginate, cuspidate, abaxial midvein narrowly cristate; lateral united petals not clawed, 1.8-2.5 cm, 2-lobed; basal and distal lobes nearly equal in size and shape; basal lobes obovate or obovate-spatulate, 1.4-2 × ca. 1.4 cm; distal lobes 1.2-2.3 × ca. 1.8 cm, margin entire or emarginate. Ovary fusiform, ca. 4 mm, glabrous. Capsule fusiform, 1.5-2 cm, glabrous. Fl. Jun-Oct. 2n = 16.

Guangdong, Hebei [native to E Africa; widely cultivated in many parts of the world].

Coastal forest areas, riverine thickets, river margins, shaded places, humid places, also cultivated in gardens and greenhouses; ca. 1800 m.

Impatiens holstii Engler & Warburg; I. sultanii J. D. Hooker.