The common jewelweed (Impatiens capensis), also known as spotted touch-me-not, is native to North America. When it blooms, it has five orange-yellow flower petals with red-orange spots. It also has three sepals (a sepal is a leaf-like structure found in flowering plants that serves to protect the flower and support the petals in bloom), one of which is orange and modified into a cornucopia shape with a long spur, giving the flower an artistic form.
Although some flowers are cross-pollinated by insects or hummingbirds, jewelweed also produces flowers that never open, called cleistogamous flowers (they fertilize themselves and produce seeds without exchanging pollen with another flower). The seed pods have a mechanism for releasing seeds, called “explosive dehiscence,” which causes them to be expelled with just a light touch (which is why it’s called “touch-me-not”).
Come and take a walk along our Hickory Loop Boardwalk and take a closer look at the details.
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