Impatiens sodenii
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
sod’s balsam, poor man’s rhododendron
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Flower colours
Red/Pink
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.
Habitat
Terrestrial. Waste places, coastal areas, scrubland. Common garden and pot plant.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Balsaminaceae
Ecology
Flowering
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
Year naturalised
1958
Origin
Eastern Africa
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Tolerances
Moderate to high shade tolerance.
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial. Grows well from seeds and cuttings (Ewen Cameron 1996). Dispersed through dumped garden waste and water movement.
Other information
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).
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
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
Referencing and citations
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.