This plant has numerous pink or purple flowers. The leaf base is deeply 2-lobed with a broad sinus. The scape and pedicels are very long and slender. The wings are 3-partite bearded on the inner face. The lateral segment has a filiform appendage enclosed in the long recurved spur.[5]
The leaves are ovate cordate with bristly crenatures with numerous weak hairs above and glabrous below. Petioles are generally shorter than the leaves. Scapes much longer than the leaves. Bracts are small and ovate, pedicels are 1 inch (25 mm) long. Sepals are small and ovate. The vexillum is rather large broadly ovate, vaulted and has three broad spreading lobes with a dense tuft of petaloid hairs above the conjunction of the lobes. It has a long filiform appendage which is entirely hidden in the spur and extends its whole length. Spur is a very long recurved glabrous capsule. Seeds are numerous and small.[6]
Habitat
I. denisonii is found in grasslands and along hedges and in wastelands of the Nilgiri Hills. It was very abundant on rocks and trees of the western slopes of the Nilgiris along the Sispara Ghat[6] at elevations of 900 metres (3,000 ft) to 1,500 metres (4,900 ft).
In 2002, it was rediscovered by Tarun Chhabra[7] and other researchers of the Edhkwehlynawd Botanical Refuge (EBR) of Udhagamandalam (Ootacamund). This team noticed that several native species of wild balsams were seldom seen in the field. For three years of ongoing botanical studies they made field trips during each August–September period when the balsams are in bloom. They sighted the I. denisonii only during their third year of searching. This was the first scientific collection of the species since British naturalist Richard Henry Beddome first documented it in 1862.[3]
^Chhabra, Tarun (6 February 2000). "Rare balsams in the hills". The Hindu - Features. Chennai: Kasturi & Sons Ltd. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 22 March 2010.
^Centre for Ecological Sciences [CES] Indian Institute of Science. "Species: Impatiens denisonii Bedd". Database of Western Ghats Flora. Bangalore: Environmental Information System of India (ENVIS). Retrieved 21 March 2010.
