Impatiens capensis - Google Search
(photos from
Biology Department, Missouri State University)
It varies from white to spotted orange flowers (depending on variety),
the flowers are very distinctive with a spurred end under the dangling flower
the pale jewelweed
It blooms in late summer/early fall and can be up to 5ft tall.
The seed pods
are touch/vibration sensitive, if you want to gather the seeds you have to trap them in your hand because as you touch it or even the branch the plant will 'throw' the seeds (folk name is touch-me-not)
The stems are succulent and noticably swollen at the joints and the stems hold a lot of liquid fluid if crushed. They are also fragile and break rather than bend if you fold them over.
Leaves are oval and coarse toothed, usually a bright green. The plants themselves are native to the US and normally found along what was once disturbed land, ditches, low lying areas and along creek beds. They need moisture and do best in dappled shade.
They are almost impossible to transplant but seed can be gathered and started if you can keep the humidity and soil mositure right, from personal experience I can say its a bit touchy and Ive successfully grown ginseng here (captured and relocated wild rhizomes from southern Ill.)which should not grow here either.
It is an annual plant but generally will reseed itself if left alone as long as the moisture and humidity are ok. It does not like being fussed with the stems break.
The plant will reduce/stop itch, it has been used on bug bites, to take the sting out of sunburns, its the active ingredient in some commercial poison ivy products. It also has anti fungal properties.
You should also do a websearch on wild parsnip because most people who have been exposed to it have no clue and id the rash later as poison ivy. Wild parsnip blooms in june/july. It isn't as touchy as ivy is unless you mow it, weed eat it or break it. (Pastinaca sativa)
Pastinaca sativa - Google Search
google for recipies, I normally just put the entire top of plants in a canning pot and add just enough water to steam it down to mush, crush it, pour off the liquid and freeze whats not used into cubes. But then I also make my own st john's wort oil (made since the person who did all of this apparently moved out of my body without me noticing)
btw yellow dock will take the sting out of stinging nettle something else normally encountered in the woods.
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