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Balsam family (Balsaminaceae)
Annual plant growing to 30-100 cm in height. Stem succulent and glassy. Leaves arranged helically, short-stalked, ovate, of length 3-12 cm, with 7-20 teeth on each margin. Upper leaves smaller, almost sessile. Flowers zygomorphic, hanging on thin pedicels. Calyx green, tripartite with downcurved, hook-like spur. Corona yellow, 5-petalled, lateral petals in pairs, with lower one largest, up to 2.5 cm long. Fruit a green capsule that explodes and scatters seed on being touched. Flowers Jun.-Sep.
Grows on moist, nutrient-rich soils, in riparian forest, or moist oak-lime-hornbeam or alder-currant forest.
Descriptions devised by the team at the Independent Department of Forest Botany, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, i.e. L. Witkowska-Żuk, K. Marciszewska, W. Ciurzycki, A. Obidziński and P. Zaniewski.
