Impatiens fragicolor Marquand & Airy-Shaw

The pale purple to pale yellow flowers of this species are similar to Impatiens sulcata, but the latter differs in that its lower sepal has an incurved, short spur.

Plants annual, 30-70 cm tall. Stem often purple, tetragonous or nearly terete, robust, succulent, simple or shortly branched, glabrous. Leaves opposite in lower part of stem, alternate in upper part of stem; petiole 0.3-3 cm, with globose glands at base; leaf blade lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 3.5-10(-12) × 1.5-4 cm, lateral veins 7-9 pairs, base cuneate, margin crenate-serrate, teeth mucronulate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences in upper leaf axils, subcorymbose, 1-6-flowered; peduncles ca. as long as or slightly longer than leaves. Pedicels 0.5-1.7(-2) cm, apex often swollen, bracteate at base; bracts persistent, lanceolate, 5-6 mm, apex acuminate. Flowers purple or pale purple to light yellowish, 2-2.5 cm deep. Lateral sepals 2, obliquely ovate, 6-7 mm, base subcordate, apex acuminate, shortly mucronulate. Lower sepal broadly funnelform, to 2.7 cm deep, narrowed into an incurved, slender spur. Upper petal cordate-ovate, apex obtuse or emarginate, mucronulate, abaxial midvein inconspicuously thickened; lateral united petals not clawed, ca. 2 cm, 2-lobed; basal lobes subovate; distal lobes dolabriform. Anthers obtuse. Capsule oblong-linear, ca. 2 cm. Fl. Jul-Aug.

E Xizang.

● Grasslands by rivers, moist places by canals, roadsides; 3100-3200 m.