Garden balsam is also called golden phoenix flower, good daughter flower, henna flower and quick-tempered seed

Aliases: golden phoenix flower, good daughter flower, henna flower, quick-tempered seed

Latin name: Impatiensbalsamina

Family name: Balsaminaceae

Suitable regions: all over the country

Ecological classification: herbaceous plant, annual and biennial flower

Ornamental classification: flower-viewing type

Morphological features:

Annual herb. Plant height varies from 30CM-80CM. The stem is thick, juicy and smooth, with swollen nodes, green or dark brown, and the stem color is related to the flower color. Leaves alternate, lanceolate, with glands on both sides of the petiole. Flowers single or several clustered in leaf axils, corolla butterfly-shaped. There are single-petaled and double-petaled types, with flower colors such as white, pink, red and purple. Flowering period June-October. The seeds burst open easily by themselves when mature.

Garden balsam has many colors: red, yellow, white... Its petals are about 6 or 7 in number, and it smells exactly like eraser. Its petals have many fuzzy hairs. At the very inside of the petals there is a grain of pollen as big as a grain of rice, with a light pink color on the outside.

The leaves of garden balsam are star-shaped, with a stem running through the middle that goes from thick to thin, and many small winding stems beside it. Around it there is a protective ring separated layer by layer. Looking at the reverse side again, the leaf stems are completely visible, all protruding.

Some branches of garden balsam are dark yellow, some are blue-green, and some are bright green. That this flower can bloom so vividly all depends on the branches to spread nutrients. If you cut a branch open with a small knife, you will see some wet, sticky water. The branch is in sections and will keep extending.

The flower seeds form when the flowers are about to wither. Garden balsam is propagated by seed. When the seeds mature, they fall off, and the next year new garden balsam will grow again. Year after year, it never declines.

Some garden balsam plants have few stems, and some have many. Some are connected with the soil, while some can be pulled up with one tug, with not much soil. The stem is the main part of garden balsam. Whether it grows well and whether its nutrition is good depend on whether the stem grows thick and strong.

Flowering period June-July.

Growth habits: sun-loving, prefers warmth and fears cold, suitable for loose and fertile soil

Landscape uses: flower beds, flower borders, flower hedges, potted plants

It is still impossible to verify who began using garden balsam to dye fingernails and when, but from the poems of the ancients, it has also existed for a long time:

The Yuan dynasty man Yang Weizhen has a poem on garden balsam: "The golden plate with dew pounds the immortal flower, relieving the slender jade of its blemish. A dot of sorrow seems like a parrot pecking, ten parts of spring ascend the peony sprout. Delicately flicking powder tears, casting red beans, playfully pinching flower branches and threading crimson clouds. When female companions meet they frequently ask, several times mistaking it for the gecko cinnabar." There is also the Yuan dynasty female poet Lu