atoll research bulletin no. 392 the flora of - Smithsonian Institution ...

B ALS AMINACEAE (Balsam Family)
Impatiens balsamina L. "balsam", "garden balsam"
Recent introduction. India or Africa. Rare. Succulent, watery, erect, branching
annual herb, up to about 60 cm high; leaves, up to 5 cm long and 4 cm wide, simple,
alternate, lanceolate, acuminate, toothed (serrate); petiole, usually glandular at the base;
flowers, up to 2.5 cm or more in diameter, short-stemmed, borne on short axillary
pedicels on the stem below the leafy tip; sepals, 3 or 5, one usually spurred; petals, 3-
lobed, lateral ones bifid, commonly double or long-spurred, showy yellow, white, pink,
purple or red flowers; fruit, a woolly, 5-valved capsule, explosively dehiscent, the valves
incurling instantly when separated; seeds, subglobose, usually brown, finely pitted.
Planted ornamental. 5(117), 6.
Impatiens walleriana Hook. f. "snapweed", "patience plant", "Zanzibar balsam"
syn. I. sultan.ii H0ok.f.
Recent introduction. Zanzibar. Rare. Erect, branching, sub-shrubby perennial
succulent herb, up to 50 cm high; leaves, alternate along the stem and arranged in a
rosette at branch tips, narrow-ovate, acuminate at tip and base, toothed or scalloped, with
soft point at each indentation; flowers, 2.5 to 3.5 cm in diameter, petals in one plane,
borne, singly or 2 to 3 together, on long axillary pedicels; sepals, 3 or 5, 1 usually
spurred; petals, showy, bright scarlet or red to pink, accompanied by a long spur; fruit.
which may or may not develop in cultivation, a 5-valved capsule. Planted ornamental. 6.
BASELLACEAE (Basella Family)
Basella rubra L. "Indian spinach " , "Ceylon spinach " , " Malabar nightshade"
sham ts'oi (C)
syn. B. alba L.
Recent introduction. Trop. Asia. Occasional. Succulent dark-green to reddish-
purple-stemmed, glabrous, branching, herbaceous, perennial twining vine, up to 4 m or
longer; leaves, 5 to 15 cm long and 4 to 14 cm wide, alternate, entire, broad-ovate,
almost heart-shaped, tender, fleshy; petioles, 1 to 2.5 cm long, green or purplish;
flowers 4 to 5 mm in diameter sessile closed white to light reddish-purple, clustered
l - - - - Z ---- , , -p -~p~---
on axillary spikes, 2 to 20 cm long; fruit, about 8 mm in diameter, ovoid, black, berry-
like. Food plant in Chinese gardens and containers at Location. Leaves and tender stems
cooked as a spinach. 5(138), 6.