A genus of about 850–1,000 species of flowering plants, widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere and tropics. Together with the puzzling Hydrocera triflora, this genus makes up the family Balsaminaceae.
Common names include impatiens, jewelweeds, and, somewhat ambiguously, "balsams" and "touch-me-nots". As a rule-of-thumb, "jewelweed" is used exclusively for Nearctic species, "balsam" is usually applied to tropical species, and "touch-me-not" is typically used in Europe and North America. Some species commonly planted in horticulture have altogether more fanciful names, such as "Busy Lizzie".
The flowers, up to 2–3 cm ,around 1 inch long, in most species are made up by a shoe- or horn-shaped spur for the most part, with at least the upper petals insignificant by comparison; some have a prominent labellum though, allowing pollinators to land. Others, like the Busy Lizzie (I. walleriana), have flattened flowers with large petals and just a tiny spur that appear somewhat similar to violets (Viola), though these are unrelated eudicots. A few Impatiens species have flowers quite intermediate between those two basic types.
