Impatiens parviflora DC.
Small balsam; Smallflower touch-me-not; Small-flowered touch-me-not; Small-flowered jewelweed





53 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar, shaded
- Apr, shaded
- May, shaded
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct, shaded
- Nov, shaded
- Dec
From few records: 10 records in 6 grid cells. The records.
Summary
Impatiens parviflora (small balsam, or small-flowered touch-me-not) is a species of annual herbaceous plants in the family Balsaminaceae, native to some areas of Eurasia, naturalized elsewhere and found in damp shady places. Impatiens parviflora can grow in sandy, loamy, and clay soils and prefers moist soil. The name comes from the fact that ripe seed pods explode when touched to disperse seeds widely.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Impatiens parviflora", CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the genus · Impatiens
Impatiens is a genus of more than 1,000 species of flowering plants, widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere and the tropics. Together with the genus Hydrocera, Impatiens make up the family Balsaminaceae.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Impatiens", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (599 mm of 829 mm) falls in March to July and October to November, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 11.4 °C against a yearly mean of 8.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to January and April to May.
Rain
829 mm in the median year at the habitat, 599 mm of it March to July and October to November. Wettest month May at 114 mm, driest month January at 36 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 472 mm to 1,083 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 816 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 829 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).
Warmth and air
Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -9.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -17.1 °C to -8.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.4 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is -9.9 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 51 to 56% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Climate across the habitat
From few records: this habitat climate is read from 10 records in 6 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from -2 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Jul and Aug; mean nightly low from -10 °C in Jan to 16 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low. 829 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 6 habitat cells. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | -2 / -11–0 | 1 / -9–2 | 6 / -2–8 | 13 / 9–15 | 19 / 17–20 | 24 / 22–25 | 26 / 23–28 | 26 / 21–27 | 21 / 15–23 | 14 / 7–15 | 6 / -3–8 | 0 / -9–2 |
| Night °C | -10 / -17–-9 | -8 / -16–-7 | -2 / -10–-2 | 4 / -1–4 | 9 / 6–9 | 13 / 12–14 | 16 / 15–17 | 15 / 12–16 | 10 / 7–11 | 4 / 1–4 | -3 / -9–-2 | -8 / -16–-7 |
| Rain mm | 36 / 24–64 | 45 / 19–74 | 86 / 18–105 | 112 / 28–162 | 114 / 50–190 | 79 / 45–122 | 84 / 51–100 | 58 / 32–62 | 45 / 29–48 | 63 / 36–85 | 61 / 28–78 | 46 / 26–71 |
| DLI | 14 / 5–16 | 20 / 11–22 | 28 / 20–30 | 35 / 29–36 | 39 / 34–40 | 43 / 38–45 | 41 / 34–44 | 38 / 27–41 | 30 / 18–33 | 21 / 10–22 | 14 / 6–15 | 12 / 4–13 |
| RH % | 54 / 50–70 | 55 / 52–67 | 56 / 54–63 | 55 / 54–55 | 54 / 53–55 | 53 / 50–54 | 51 / 48–57 | 51 / 48–58 | 53 / 49–58 | 54 / 52–61 | 55 / 53–65 | 54 / 51–69 |
The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1463 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum -25.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -15.9 °C.
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Maria Kohanovskaya, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Tilgate Zoo, some rights reserved (CC BY).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Inula grandis Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Dr. Alexey Yakovlev
Ulmus × androssowii Narwan Photo: CC0, Pedro
Crocus alatavicus Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, Oleg Kosterin
Alcea nudiflora Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Dmitry Kulakov
Prunus armeniaca Apricot Photo: CC BY, Michelle W. (鍾偉瑋)
Iris kolpakowskiana Kolpakowski's Iris Photo: CC BY, Artem AbdukakharovOther Impatiens 61 in the reference
Impatiens arguta Balsaminaceae Photo: CC BY, Siddarth Machado
Impatiens aurella Pale yellow jewelweed Photo: CC BY, Alina Martin
Impatiens auricoma Balsaminaceae Photo: CC BY, Charlène Selva
Impatiens balfourii Balfour's touch-me-not Photo: CC0, author not stated
Impatiens balsamina Balsam Photo: CC BY, Franz Anthony
Impatiens bicolor Balsaminaceae Photo: CC BY, Jeffrey Lee (he/him/his) Impatiens briartii Balsaminaceae
Impatiens burtonii Balsaminaceae Photo: CC BY, Matt Benjamin
Impatiens campanulata Balsaminaceae Photo: CC BY, Paulmathi Vinod
Impatiens capensis Orange balsam Photo: CC BY, Gavin Slater
Impatiens chinensis Chinese Balsam Photo: CC0, author not stated Impatiens cinnabarina Balsaminaceae all 62 ›Names & registers
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence search API; 65 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (37 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 6 at a herbarium, 22 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 43.00_76.875, lapse-corrected -1463 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1463 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shownwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.






