by Rick Forrester
Take time out while walking or biking on the trail and look for a jewel of a plant in the forest! The biological name is “Impatiens Capensis” but a few of its common names are orange jewelweed, common jewelweed, spotted touch-me-not, or orange balsam. Believe it or not, it is actually related to the ornamental Impatiens we are fond of using in our landscaping at home.
The flowers range from yellow to orange with red splotches on three lobes. The leaves are alternate, smooth, have teeth on the edges and are silvery underneath. Jewelweed is usually 3-5 feet tall and they are blooming right now (August/September) down on the trail! Hummingbirds are the major pollinator with bumblebees being the next best.
The plant has some incredible, unique characteristics. The seed pods, once fully mature, are angled down from the stem, and the riper they are, the farther back they’re cocked, resulting in a spring-loaded mechanism which will shoot the seeds several feet in a process called ballistochory or explosive dehiscence. (Explosive dehiscence – what a delightful phrase!) if you gently pull the bottom of the pod toward you with one finger, the pod instantaneously splits into four curled sections and the seeds go flying in all directions. Hence the name “touch-me-not”. It is great fun to do this with your children! But if you don’t have your kids along as an excuse, go ahead and do it on your own when no one is looking!
If you pick up the individual seeds and peel back the outer cover, you will find a beautiful turquoise-colored seed. Hence, the derivation of the name “jewelweed.” The often-silvery underside of the leaves adds to the name jewelweed.
Not stopping at that, the stems of the plant contain triterpene glycosides or “saponins” which act as a foaming agent. What that means for you as a hiker is that if you brush up against stinging nettles or poison ivy, you can crush the stem of the jewelweed plant and use the juice to neutralize the sting of the nettles and also to reduce the inflammation from exposure to poison ivy. The crushed stem juice is also a fungicide and can be used to treat athletes’ foot. You can buy jewelweed extract at homeopathic stores, though it does not have the effectiveness of the oil freshly mashed from the plant unfortunately. Do exhibit caution, though – for some reason, jewelweed often grows side by side with nettles and poison ivy!
So, have some autumn fun down on the trail firing seeds and spreading goodness around the forest floor with friends and family! You’ll be helping plant the crop for next year’s jeweled adventures while you’re at it.
Below: Jewelweed pod ready to explode!
Below: Exploded pod and covered seeds
Below: Seed cover removed, revealing the jewels!
September 2022
