For 36 years+ I have had pink impatiens flowers in my yard, first blooms appearing right around the first of July. They were here when I bought the house and the previous owner pointed out these tiny sprouts and said to me that these are “reseeding impatiens”. They come in various shades of pink from a deep magenta to a pale baby pink.
Over the years I have noticed that weather plays a huge part in whether these impatiens come back in droves or whether they are sparce. At some point a few years ago I began collecting seeds thinking that perhaps in a warm december that the seeds would sprout and then succumb to the freezes in January.
The flowers themselves are the only flower in my yard which attracts migrating humming birds, and the bees and bumble bees seem to pay them less attention. From August onward the seed pods form. They are are terriffic examples of biological engineering, and as they mature into little “impatiens-seed grenades” they pop with huge vigor spreading their 50-100+ seeds (within each pod) out onto the ground. This year I decided to count the seeds (so to speak) and there are about 222 seeds in each 0.15g. (I will update with total seeds collected later in the fall)(about 80,000 by weight). The largest pod contained 108 seeds, this seems to vary with the year, and the number of insects, birds and other polinators. The polinating species certainly express what all biology expresses…. do the least amount of work for the greatest reward. This is seen by the position of the flowers on the plants with the biggest pods…. easy access means more frequent polination and therefore more seeds per pod.
I have noticed that there are differences in seed-producing vigor with the very pale pink impatiens having fewer seeds and smaller seed pods, and lighter color seeds than the very dark impatiens do. The biggest pods seem to be on the medium pink variety. I collect them all, every color. I have sorted seeds by color in the past, but when I throw the seeds to the ground in early May it seems not to make much difference how I have sorted the colors and what color impatiens flowers spring forth.
Not the prettiest, or showiest variety of impatiens varieties, just plain and simple, but I enjoy them, their color, and the fact that they have persisted in my yard (sometimes with my help), for decades.
Images below show flowers with mature and immature pods, and pods I have collected (immature pods are small, narrow, and dont have a translucency, and dont look “pregnant”), and the seeds are shown collected in the last image.
Another thing i noticed is that if the flowers get wilty (which they do often) but are watered well, within a few hours the seed pods are bulging, ready to pop.
