[kali291]

Found this growing in amongst a root of phlox that I was given, and cannot find it in any book. Has anyone any ideas please?
TIA

[Silver surfer]

Impatiens glandulifera... common name Himalayan Balsam .


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impatiens_glandulifera

A foreign alien that is proliferating many river banks and field edges.
It has explosive seed pods.
It is a beautiful menace.
Do not keep it!

[kali291]

Such a shame, but thank you very much.

[Greengage]

Hold on put the horses back in the traces for a moment, yes it is listed on the invasive plannt list but who put it on there and why, it is excellent this time of year for pollen for honeybees but sure they are not native anyway so maybe we should get rid of them too. Where i live it could be described as a nectar desert lots of monocrops, Wheat, rape, barley,Potatoes and everything sprayed, the rest of the fields are silage hay and strtay is imported for horses, field edges are sprayed and cut for neatness and roadside verges all the stud farms have beech hedgeing. but our envirionmentalists dont get too annoyed aboout that. I see in england they are going to introduce a rust to control it but who is going to control the rust if that gets out of hand, Oh dont worry some of the big chemical companies will have a solution, Also in england the home office will prosecute you for propogating it does that mean if you have honey bees you will be prosecuted for alowing them forrage on it. Alicia prowse did a project on it and it is on line so she wont mind shareing it have a read if you are interested, http://www.morrison-prowse.com/documents/alicia_prowse_phd.pdf. i see we also have woodpeckers in ireland should we get rid of them as they are not native and could proliferate too. Most of our park land specimen trees are also not native and a lot of our garden plants like Buddleia, croccosmia, snowdrops, crocus, tulips, Daffs, I could go on and on. so for Hymilian balsam the jury should be still out

[Sue Deacon]

While I agree with most of what you say - especially the madness of introducing one thing to control another (never a good idea), we had Himalayan Balsam growing along the Lyme Brook near where I used to live. In the space of a few years it was ALL that was growing along the bank.

It IS very pretty, but give it an inch, and it takes a mile (or two)!

[Silver surfer]

I agree with Sue.
It is very invasive especially along streams and nearby land.
Once there it completely smothers ALL our native wild flowers.

Not sure that you have seen how much of a problem it can be Greengage.

Do you want the countryside to look like this...?

http://cdn2.arkive.org/media/C4/C4E3C6E2-7983-4AC7-890E-B95FF3B18ECC/Presentation.Large/himalayan-balsam-invading-banks-of-river-wye.jpg

http://www.dcrt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Impatiens-glandulifera-small.jpg


http://www.lancashireinvasives.org/admin_files/files/Balsam.jpg

Woodpeckers...are hardy in the same league as a pest/menace/invasive species.

[Greengage]

Ok what about croccosmia, winter heliotrope, wild garlic, Ivy, buddleia, red valerian etc and if you lok at the list for ireland daisies, snowberry and Holm oak are on the amber list, we should include Sycamore there too.
we will agree to disagree, Just because someone puts it on an invasive list does not mean it is a problem, Flowers are ediable in salads,as a flower decoration or in ice cubes the stems can be used as straws.
http://www.selfsufficientish.com/main/2013/07/himalayan-balsam-impatiens-glandulifera-food-for-free-dave-hamilton/
Unlike Heracleum mantegazzianum, giant hogweed, it doesn’t do physical harm to people and unlike Fallopia japonica, Japanese knotweed, it does not break through tarmac and brickwork but it can be still problematic in the wrong place. It is an annual and will out compete native plants like the above. .

[kali291]

Didn't realise that this was an annual .I only have one, and it is in a corner by two walls, so I'm going to keep it and keep a watchful eye on it. Thanks to everyone for their help.

[Greengage]

It can produce up to 380 viable seeds every year, so keep a very close eye on it.Touch the seed pods and it will explode sending them up to 7 metres away.