WILD Beauties

IMPATIENS CAPENSIS MEERB.

SPOTTED JEWELWEED (BALSAMINACEAE)

sounds like “impatience” and has the same root. It refers to the seed capsules, which suddenly rupture and fling seeds without warning. The specific epithet refers to the Cape of Good Hope, because early botanists who saw it in Europe thought it came from there. Jewelweed is so named because when the leaves are held under water, the wax on their surface repels the water, giving the leaf a silvery sheen. It is an annual but can grow up to six feet tall in a season, largely through the rapid accumulation of water evident in the very succulent stems. The common reference to the stem juice as an antidote for poison ivy has a scientific basis. The plant’s