Species
+

Impatiens walleriana Hook.fil.

Busy Lizzie, Busy Lizzie, Bizzy lizzy, Balsam, Zanzibar balsam, Sultana, Sultan's flower, Sultan's balsam, Impatiens, Garden impatiens, Patience plant, Patient Lucy, Buzzy lizzy, Fleißiges Lieschen (DE); Busy lizzy (EN); Periquito (ES)

Climate known 47 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Impatiens walleriana, also known as busy Lizzie, balsam, sultana, or simply impatiens, is a species of the genus Impatiens, native to eastern Africa from Kenya to Mozambique. The Latin specific epithet walleriana honours a British missionary, Horace Waller (1833–1896).

Text from Wikipedia, “Impatiens walleriana”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Impatiens

Impatiens is a genus of more than 1,000 species of flowering plants, widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere and the tropics. Together with the genus Hydrocera, Impatiens make up the family Balsaminaceae.

Text from Wikipedia, “Impatiens”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Balsaminaceae
Described by
Hook.fil.
Native to
Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi +2
Wild records
53 in range· 35 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Feb, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1157mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Apr 235 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, November to January and March to May at the habitat (not shifted). Habitat rain 1157 mm a year, wettest April at 235 mm, driest July at 22 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Impatiens bruantii Pynaert; Impatiens episcopi H.J.Veitch; Impatiens holstii Engl. & Warb. ex Engl.; Impatiens lujae De Wild.; Impatiens lujai De Wild. and 5 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, November to January and March to May at the habitat (not shifted).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (884 mm of 1157 mm) falls in November to January and March to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.7 °C against a yearly mean of 20.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1157 mm a year, wettest April at 235 mm, driest July at 22 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1157 mm a year at the habitat, 884 mm of it November to January and March to May. Wettest month April at 235 mm, driest July at 22 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 904 mm to 1728 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 10.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 10.8 °C, the absolute minimum 8.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.9 °C in July (across the envelope cells 8.2 °C to 19.8 °C), warmest day 27.5 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 70% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 22 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Feb; mean night from 13 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1157 mm of rain a year, most in Apr. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 45 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 8.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°33.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)8.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 29–39RH 62–70 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 45 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 23–3028 / 23–3127 / 22–3025 / 20–2923 / 19–2822 / 18–2722 / 17–2723 / 18–2725 / 20–2826 / 21–2926 / 22–3027 / 22–30
Night °C18 / 13–2419 / 14–2418 / 14–2418 / 13–2316 / 11–2214 / 9–2113 / 8–2014 / 9–2014 / 10–2016 / 11–2117 / 13–2218 / 13–23
Rain mm113 / 45–238105 / 27–242162 / 86–243235 / 70–348121 / 29–27930 / 20–10522 / 11–7322 / 11–6927 / 10–5867 / 37–153111 / 78–153142 / 86–205
DLI39 / 35–4139 / 35–4236 / 33–4031 / 28–3429 / 27–3129 / 26–3129 / 26–3232 / 30–3436 / 34–3838 / 36–4038 / 36–4037 / 35–40
RH %66 / 60–7065 / 58–6967 / 61–7170 / 62–7568 / 59–7364 / 58–6962 / 57–6863 / 56–6762 / 56–6763 / 58–6865 / 61–6967 / 62–71

Each figure is the median across the 45 grid cells holding the 53 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1919:4354 (-5.975, 37.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 45 distinct grid cells holding the 53 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1919:4354 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -6.00_37.500, lapse-corrected +211 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 998 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeKenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe· introduced: Germany, Morocco, Canary Is., Madeira, Cameroon, Rwanda, Northern Provinces, St.Helena, Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion, Seychelles, China North-Central, China Southeast, Nansei-shoto, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New South Wales, Queensland, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Hawaii, New Jersey, Ohio, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Southwest, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Juan Fernández Is.
Kew's description“subshrub” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-4.952, 38.687 · in the densest population, 38 records (72% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 53 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 35 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 54 km away. 1672 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 53 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Impatiens wallerianaImpatiens wallerianaImpatiens wallerianaImpatiens wallerianaImpatiens wallerianaImpatiens wallerianaImpatiens wallerianaImpatiens walleriana

Photographs: (c) Samuel Zuluaga, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Greg III Espera, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Carrie Seltzer, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Victor Farjalla Pontes, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Impatiens walleriana, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Hydrogen sulphide, a novel gasotransmitter involved in guard cell signalling
Carlos García‐Mata, Lorenzo Lamattina (2010) · New Phytologist
Is There a Role for Oligosaccharides in Seed Longevity? An Assessment of Intracellular Glass Stability
Julia Buitink, Marcus A. Hemminga, Folkert A. Hoekstra (2000) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Emergence ofGroundnut ringspot virusandTomato chlorotic spot virusin Vegetables in Florida and the Southeastern United States
Craig G. Webster, Galen Frantz, Stuart R. Reitz, Joseph E. Funderburk (2014) · Phytopathology
Abscisic Acid Application Enhances Drought Stress Tolerance in Bedding Plants
Nicole L. Waterland, Craig Campbell, John J. Finer, Michelle L. Jones (2010) · HortScience
Conclusions about Niche Expansion in Introduced Impatiens walleriana Populations Depend on Method of Analysis
Lisa Mandle, Dan L. Warren, Matthias H. Hoffmann, A. Townsend Peterson (2010) · PLoS ONE
Chelator effects on bioconcentration and translocation of cadmium by hyperaccumulators, Tagetes patula and Impatiens walleriana
Jhen-Lian Wei, Hung−Yu Lai, Zueng‐Sang Chen (2012) · Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
Impact of flowers on the demography of western flower thrips Frankliniella occidentalis (Thysan., Thripidae)
Cécile Gerin, Th. Hance, Georges Van Impe (1999) · Journal of Applied Entomology
Effects of exogenous salicylic acid on Impatiens walleriana L. grown in vitro under polyethylene glycol-imposed drought
D. Antonić, Snežana Milošević, Aleksandar Cingel, Milena Lojic (2016) · South African Journal of Botany

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Impatiens 7 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 124 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.