Anand Pendharkar: The Impatient Balsam flower

As a wildlife biologist Irsquove always been inclined towards behaviour and evolutionary biology than genetics and molecular biology However the very first lessons of genetics way back in college days were intriguing and opened an amazing world for my curious mind The Mendelian crosses which we studied explained how hybrids were produced And the most popular plant studied during our laboratory practicals were red and white Balsams which on hybridisation could produce red white and pink coloured flowers in the next generationA slice of the fungal diversity found in MumbaiBut this wasnrsquot my first introduction to the Balsam flowers Every evening a flower vendor used to tuck a small leafcovered packet of assorted flowers and leaves to be used by my mother during her prayers the next day Balsams were the brightest members in this packet I remember seeing their spurs and later learnt that they contain deep nectaries which caused butterflies to evolve equally long probosces They were unwittingly picking up pollen grains to be transported to other flowers resulting in crosspollination And back then I never realised that such startling lessons in coevolution existed in plain sight But what really caught my fancy with relation to Balsams was the explosive dehiscence of their mature seed capsules which burst on contact with humans animals or even raindrops This eagerness to catapult seeds to a far off location by springaction led to its Latin name Impatiens This is another biology lesson worth experiencing mdash the property of plants to show reflexes or response to stimuli a character that we usually designate to Kingdom AnimaliaImpatiens is a pantropical Genus with around 1000 species distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere of which India has 55 species All balsams prefer moist rich soils and can be found in roadside ditches reed beds fences river banks and forest edges from sea level to up to 2000m in the Himalaya The vibrant white pink mauve and red flowers from annual or perennial species are selected depending on local climates and time available for gardening Their nectaries attract many birds and insects though the flowers lack fragranceAll Impatiens are upright softstemmed plants growing 3090cms and flowering profusely Their alternately arranged lustrous waterrepellent leaves are important food for many insect larvae but have a bitter taste and slight toxicity This is probably due to glycosides or alkaloids and calcium oxalate crystals which upon ingestion by other animals including humans causes vomiting and diarrhoea With this context one may wonder why the flowers of dangerous Balsams are offered in religious ceremonies such as in Ganesh Chaturthi However the paste of the Impatiens flower when applied externally relieves arthritic pain soothes burns and is an effective remedy for anuria less urination Further on our local Impatiens balsamina has anticancerous antiinflammatory and emetic causing vomiting properties besides being and an effective laxative Thus the origin of balsamico in Balsamic Vinegar which actually means balsamlike refers to Balsams restorative or curative properties though funnily Balsamic Vinegar contains no balsamTo most Balsams mean colour and charm However to me the Balsams will always remain the model organisms for observing evolutionary developmental biologyWrite in to Anand at sproutsenvttrustgmailcom