Impatiens sodenii
Common names
sod’s balsam, poor man’s rhododendron
Family
Balsaminaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Exotic
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
IMPSOD
Conservation status
Not applicable
Habitat
Terrestrial. Waste places, coastal areas, scrubland. Common garden and pot plant.
Detailed description
Glabrous subshrub to about 2m high, stems green, semi succulent. Leaves in whorls of up to 6 up to 12 x 3.5 cm. Flowers solitary on slender pedicels amongst axils of uppermost leaves, 5-6.5 cm diameter, pink. Fruit up to 2.5 cm long, fusiform.
Similar taxa
I. walleriana is similar but is smaller and has orange or red flowers.
Flowering
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
Flower colours
Red/Pink
Life cycle
Perennial. Grows well from seeds and cuttings (Ewen Cameron 1996). Dispersed through dumped garden waste and water movement.
Year naturalised
1958
Origin
Eastern Africa
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Tolerances
Moderate to high shade tolerance.
Etymology
impatiens: From the Latin impatiens ‘impatient, hasty’, referring perhaps to the manner in which the pods of some species explode (Johnson and Smith, 1986).
References and further reading
Johnson, A. T. and Smith, H. A (1986). Plant Names Simplified: Their pronunciation, derivation and meaning. Landsman Bookshop Ltd: Buckenhill, UK.