Referring to the sudden and often explosive opening of the pods when touched.
Annual or perennial succulent herbs and subshrubs. Leaves alternate, opposite or whorled. Flowers solitary or in clusters. Sepals 3(5), upper ones small and mostly green, lower ones petal-like and spurred. Petals 5, the uppermost usually flat or helmet-shaped, lower ones usually united in 2 pairs or wings. Stamens 5, united to form a tube at the tip. Ovary superior, of 5 chambers. Fruit a 5-valved capsule opening explosively, the valves coiling back.
Grown mainly as bedding and indoor plants for the fleshy foliage and interesting, brightly coloured flowers. Larger specimens are used as border plants. Species occasionally available include: I. balsamina L., Garden Balsam (Rose Balsam), from SE Asia and India, an annual to about 70 cm tall with alternate, lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, deeply toothed leaves and hairy capsules, available in a range of seed mixes; I. niamniamensis Gilg. from E tropical Africa, an upright herb to nearly 1m tall with leaves 6-20 cm long, the standard petal usually creamy green; I. repens Moon. from C Sri Lanka, a trailing plant with distinctive reddish stems and yellow flowers netted with red-brown; and I. sodenii Engl. from E tropical Africa, which is occasionally encountered, especially in botanical and older gardens, a shrub to 2 m tall with thick fleshy stems, ciliate-edged leaves in whorls of 6-8, and white to pink flowers with spurs 3-4.5 cm long. [I. oliveri W.Wats.]
Seeds or cuttings.
I. balsamina is the source of a dye.
Fleshy plants with irregular, often brightly coloured, spurred flowers, the lateral petals united into 2 pairs; anthers forming a cap over the ovary; fruit a capsule.
About 1000 species, mostly from tropical and northern temperate regions, especially Africa and Asia.
Grey-Wilson (1980a, 1980b, 1983).
Source: (2002). Balsaminaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.