Impatiens siculifera Hook.f.

Impatiens siculifera Hook.f., Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. sér. 4, 10: 246 (1908).

Impatiens siculifer Hook. f.; Photos Hoang Thanh Son

Vietnamese name: 

Móc tai, Bóng nước

Chinese name:

English name:

Latin Name: 

Impatiens siculifer Hook. f.

Synonym Name: 

Impatiens siculifer var. siculifer

Family: 

Balsaminaceae 

Description: 

Herbs,  terrestrial,  perennial,  to 1.2 m tall,  glabrous except leaves. Stem  slender, erect,  usually  solitary, sometime  branched  from base,  with  distinctly  swollen  nodes;  internodes ca. 6 cm long. Leaves alternate, crowded on up-per part of stem, with stipular glands; petiole to 2.4 cm long, shorter in upper leaves; blade ellip-tic, 9.2–14.3 × 3.5–4.9 cm, base cuneate or more or less attenuate,  margin crenulate, apex acumi-nate or short caudate, purple or dark purple, stri-gose between teeth, hairs to 1 mm long; venation distinctly reticulate, prominent on both surfaces, lateral veins 10 or  11 pairs. Inforescences axil-lary, racemose, near stem apex, with 3–5 fowers; peduncle 5.5–7 cm long. Flowers bright yellow, ca. 0.5 cm  in diam.; pedicel  slender, ca.  2.5 cm long, bracteate  at  base; bracts  lanceolate,  3.7 × 0.5 mm; lateral  sepals 2, narrowly oblong, ca. 5 mm long; lower sepal funnel-form, tapering into long recurved spur, with scattered reddish  spots on both surfaces, 3.5–3.8 cm long including spur; upper  petal  suborbicular or  orbicular, 1.0  ×  1.2 cm, abaxial midvein thickened, narrowly winged; wing  bright  yellow;  lateral  united  petals  not clawed,  bilobed;  basal  lobe subtriangular,  with scattered reddish spots on adaxial surface; distal lobe lorate, apex  acuminate, with  dense  reddish spots at base of adaxial surface. Capsule clavate, immature  fruits  2.2 cm  long, 3.5  mm in  diam.; immature seeds (0.5–)0.8–1.5 mm long. Flower-ing and fruiting in October - November

Flower season: 

October-November 

Distribution: 

Found in China South-Central, China Southeast, East Himalaya, Myanmar, Vietnam. In VietNam, found in Muong La Nature Reserve (Son La province). 

Ecological: 

Habitat  and  Ecology  in  Vietnam. wet places along  stream  in forest  at ca.  1,900  m  alt.; with such species  as Acorus calamus  L., Poilannam-mia incise C. Hans., Rubus ferox Focke, Pteridrys syrmatica C. Chr. & Ching, Cyrtococcum patens (L.)  A.  Camus  and  Bonia  parvifoscula  (W.  T. Lin) N. H. Xia.

Reference: 

- theplantlist.org

- efloras.org

- ipni.org

- Acta Phytotaxa Geobotany 70 (1): 63–66 (2019)