Pale Touch Me Not

Impatiens pallida Nutt. Gen. 1 : 146. 1818
Impatiens Noli-tangere Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 149. 1803. Not /. Noli-tangere L. 1753. Impatiens aurea S. Wats. Bibl. Ind. 152, as a synonvm. 1878. Not/, aurea Muhl. 1813. Impatiens pallida alba Clute, Am. Bot. 7 : 67. 1904.
Annual ; stem usually light-green, glabrous, 1-2 m. high, branched ; petioles 1-5 cm. long ; leaf-blades thin, bright-green, somewhat paler beneath, oval or ovate, 3-15 cm. long, 2-9 cm. wide, crenate-dentate, with rounded or obliquely triangular, mucronate teeth ; inflorescence 3-5 cm. long, 3-5-flowered ; bracts lanceolate, about 5 mm. long ; lateral sepals broadly ovate, acuminate, light-green, 5-7 mm. long ; posterior sepal light sulfur-yellow, usually unspotted or with minute reddish or brownish dots, broadly conic, about 15 mm. long and fully as wide ; spur bent at a right angle, 3-8 mm. long, usually notched ; petals of the same color as the spur or lighter, usually more dotted, the anterior one broadly obovate, emarginate, 7-8 mm. long, about 10 mm. wide ; lateral petals oblong, nearly 1 cm. long, half-united with the posterior ones, which are broadly obliquely spatulate and nearly 2 cm. long; pod clavate, acute at the apex, attenuate at the base, about 2.5 cm. long and 5 mm. thick.
Type locality : Vicinity of Philadelphia.
Distribution : River banks and wet grounds, from Nova Scotia to Georgia, Kansas, and Saskatchewan.