A Biodiversity Information System for Cheshire, Halton, Warrington & Wirral

Posted: **Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:10 pm**

Orange Balsam (Impatiens capensis):

First time I've seen this: there's a clump of Orange Balsam, (Impatiens capensis) about 12m long, growing out of the water beside the towpath of the Trent & Mersey Canal near Little Leigh, 2-300m north of Hole House Bridge, Grid Ref. SJ616754.

Nice looking plant, not sure how invasive it is - the seed pods have the same explosive mechanism as Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera), but unlike HB the plant appears to be strictly aquatic as it hasn't gained a foothold on the canal bank. I've attached a few photos.

Tom.

Posted: **Thu Sep 06, 2012 8:17 am**

Interesting find Tom - thanks for the location and photos !!!

I assume you have put it into RODIS mate ??

Cheers.

Steve

Posted: **Fri Sep 07, 2012 2:30 pm**

This is quite common along Cheshire canals these days which is a change from the 1960's when it was only at Statham. I would insert a distribution map but I cannot work out how to do it!

Graeme

Posted: **Fri Sep 07, 2012 2:33 pm**

Impatiens capansis.doc: (83 KiB) Downloaded 1645 times

Posted: **Fri Sep 07, 2012 3:13 pm**

Hi Graeme,

Thanks for that update. Below is a map of this species (Orange Balsam (Impatiens capensis) from the rECOrd database - it would seem that you have some records which are not yet in the central database - it would be great if you could see your way to updating the dataset - many thanks.

Steve

: Distribution map of Orange Balsam
(Impatiens capensis) records on the
rECOrd database - as at 07/09/2012.

A Biodiversity Information System for Cheshire, Halton, Warrington & Wirral

Orange Balsam (Impatiens capensis)

Orange Balsam (Impatiens capensis)

Re: Orange Balsam (Impatiens capensis)

Re: Orange Balsam (Impatiens capensis)

Re: Orange Balsam (Impatiens capensis)

Re: Orange Balsam (Impatiens capensis)