Small Balsam

Plants annual, 30-60 cm tall, glabrous or sparsely glandular hairy, with few supporting and fibrous roots. Stem erect, succulent, nodes swollen; branches spreading. Leaves alternate; petiole 1.5-2 cm; leaf blade pale green abaxially, dark green adaxially, elliptic or ovate, 6-11 × 3.5-4.5 cm, membranous, usually with 3 or 4 pairs of stipitate basal glands, lateral veins 5-7 pairs, curved, base cuneate, decurrent to petiole, margin acutely serrate, teeth mucronulate, basally nearly entire, apex acuminate or shortly acute. Inflorescences in upper leaf axils, 4-12-flowered; peduncles ca. as long as or slightly longer than subtending leaf. Pedicels 1-1.5 cm, elongate at fruiting, slender, bracteate at base; bracts persistent, ovate-lanceolate, 2-3 × 1-1.5 mm. Flowers pale yellow, throat often reddish spotted, small, ca. 1 cm deep. Lateral sepals 2, ovate, ca. 3 × 1-1.5 mm, margin entire. Lower sepal navicular, abruptly narrowed into an erect spur; spur conical, 5-7 mm; mouth vertical, ca. 8 mm, tip acute. Upper petal orbicular, ca. 5 mm, apex emarginate, abaxial midvein not thickened; lateral united petals ± clawed, reddish spotted, 1-1.2 cm, 2-lobed; basal lobes reddish spotted, ovate, apex obtuse; distal lobes subdolabriform, 2-lobed. Filaments linear, swollen apically; anthers obtuse. Ovary fusiform, 2-3 mm. Capsule linear-oblong or cylindric, 2-2.5 cm. Seeds few, oblong-ovoid, ca. 3 mm. Fl. Jun-Aug. 2n = 26.

Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia; Europe].

Riverbanks, mossy or moist places along canals; 1200-1700 m.