DACF Home → Bureaus & Programs → Maine Natural Areas Program → Communities, Plants, and Animals → Rare Plants → Impatiens pallida
Impatiens pallida Nutt.
Pale Jewel-weed
- State Rank: S2
- Global Rank: G5
- State Status: Special Concern
Habitat: Wet or springy places, often in shade and chiefly in calcareous areas. [Hardwood to mixed forest (forest, upland)].
Range: Nova Scotia to Saskatchewan, Georgia and Kansas.
Aids to Identification: Pale jewel-weed is a wildflower closely related to our common and ubiquitous touch-me-not or jewelweed (I. capensis). It is similar in appearance but differs in having the flowers canary yellow, rather than orange and in having a relatively wider sac-like part of the flower.
Ecological characteristics: While common touch-me-not is found in wet areas and in acid soil, pale touch-me-not is more exacting in its habitat requiring wet woods of calcareous or limy areas.
Phenology: Flowers July - September.
Family: Balsaminaceae
Synonyms: None noted.
Known Distribution in Maine: This rare plant has been documented from a total of 14 town(s) in the following county(ies): Aroostook, Oxford, Piscataquis, York.
Reason(s) for rarity: Calcareous habitat naturally scarce in Maine.
Conservation considerations: Effects of logging are not well known, but partial removal of the canopy would be less likely to adversely affect the plant than would complete canopy removal.