Variable perennial herb to 1 m tall but generally much less and sometimes trailing, the stems often reddish purple. Leaves 3-7 per whorl, ovate to lanceolate or almost linear, 5-20 cm long, 1-6 cm wide, bronze to variegated with yellow or pink on the midrib. Flowers solitary or in pairs in the leaf axils, 4-6 cm wide, more or less flat, white, pink, to orange, magenta and purple, the petals more or less the same size. Fruit capsule hairless.
New Guinea
Breeding experiments in the USA have produced a cultivar group referred to collectively as the New Guinea Hybrids and popular as indoor pot plants. These selections display a range of leaf variegations, as well as the typical green form, and flowers that are white to pink, red and purple as well as bicoloured or frilled. Selection of colourful natural forms has also occurred in New Guinea. About 45 cultivars had been granted PBR status in Australia by 1998. The taxonomy of this complex is difficult and has involved assorted lumping and splitting.
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.