Consider-the-Lilies Web Gallery
Touch-me-not
This native wildflower can be found filling in sunny areas along fences and weedy roadsides in rural Virginia from June through mid-August.
Although it does not blanket its habitat with blossoms as do some other roadside wildflowers, such as the floriferous Dames Rocket and Early Yellowrocket, this is not a plant that is easily overlooked.
Each bright orange-red blossom, looking to me like a misplaced tropical orchid, does stand out like a brilliant jewel against the dark green setting of its leaves, thus one of its names, Jewel-weed .
This wildflower's second common name, Touch-me-not, describes another attribute of Impatiens capensis.
Like other members of the Impatiens family , this plant is an ballistic seed disperser (elastic dehiscence).
Not dangerously, but in a "funny-scary" way, the "delicate hair-trigger" of the "nervous little seed-pods" has thrilled children for generations.
One touch by a little finger shoots seeds as far as four feet—maybe at an unsuspecting sister or brother!
This is impressive, but a smaller wildflower, Hairy Bittercress, is even more powerful. It can shoot its tiny seeds ten feet from the mother plant. But, Bittercress lacks the "hair-trigger" feature, so they probably aren't nearly as much fun!
Go to the Main Directory to consider more lilies of the field.