Small balsam	Status LU: established. 1st record: LU & ITW 1956.
	Klengt Sprangkraut	Status Eur.: established. 1st record CH: <1831.1
	Balsamine à petites fleurs	RA: ISEIA: C3. Harmonia+: 0,13.
	Kleines Springkraut	Wikipedia: | Wikispecies: | CABI
	Klein springzaad	Back to the list of neophytes

Report the species

→ Report Impatiens parviflora to the National Museum of Natural History.

Brief description

Impatiens parviflora DC. is an annual herb that is widely dispersed in European forests. It prefers shaded and moist nutrient-rich stands, but can also grow in acidic conditions. It thrives in beech and alder forests, but can also be found in parks, along hedgerows, on forest edges, in waste grounds and ruderal habitats (Branquart et al. 2010).

Status and distribution in Luxembourg

Impatiens parviflora DC. was first documented by Jean-Jacques Kariger (1925-2018) in late June 1956 in an alluvial forest along the Attert, downstream of Redange (Reichling 1958, Specimen № 24952, MNHNL 2000-, Krippel & Proess 2017: 57).

456 records of the species are listed in the MNHNL-mdata online portal and the plant is widespread throughout the country’s forests (MNHNL, iNaturalist & GBIF 2019). Most of these data have been collected during systematic inventories along the main watercourses in 2013 (Pfeiffenschneider et al. 2014).

This annual plant species from central and eastern Asia is naturalised in a large part of Europe (Lambinon & Verloove 2012: 480).

Alien Impatiens taxa

Six alien balsam species have been reported in Luxembourg, Impatiens noli-tangere L. being the only native species.

• Impatiens balfourii Hook.f.: Balfour’s touch-me-not, first observed in 2016 in the wild in Luxembourg.
• Impatiens balsamina L.: the garden balsam is already mentioned in Krombach’s flora of 1875 as “Introduced from the East Indies and grown in all gardens” (Krombach 1875: 56).
• Impatiens capensis Meerb. is an annual plant native to eastern North America that is currently spreading across Europe. In Luxembourg, it was first reported on 2021-10-11 from the Moselle valley.
• Impatiens glandulifera Royle: the invasive Himalayan Balsam, which is widespread in riparian ecosystems and forests across Luxembourg.
• Impatiens parviflora DC.: the small balsam, which is widespread in forests across Luxembourg.
• Impatiens walleriana Hopok. f. was reported once as cultivated in Rumelange in 1946.

In 2011 the annual hybrid Impatiens parviflora × I. balfourii was discovered in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. The fertile hybrid with alternating leaves can be up to 60 cm high. Considerable populations of the hybrid were observed in 2014 in the canton of Ticino in the absence of the parent species (Van Valkenburg et al. 2019).

Risk assessment

ISEIA protocol

C3 (3+2+1+1) (Ries et al. 2013: 18).

Harmonia+ protocol

Overall risk score 0,13 = (Overall Invasion score 0,63 x Overall Impact score 0,20) (Ries et al. 2020).

Worldwide distribution

Bibliography

• Branquart, E., S. Vanderhoeven, W. Van Landuyt, F. Van Rossum, F. Verloove & A. Vervoort, 2010. Harmonia database: Impatiens parviflora DC. Harmonia version 1.2, Belgian Forum on Invasive Species. URL: http://ias.biodiversity.be [accessed on 2019-10-09]
• CABI, 2021. Impatiens parviflora. In: Invasive Species Compendium. Wallingford, UK: CAB International. URL: www.cabi.org/isc [accessed 2021-03-04]
• Krippel, Y. & R. Proess, 2017. Impatiens balfourii Hook. f. (Balsaminaceae), nouvelle espèce subspontanée au Luxembourg ?. Bull. Soc. Nat. luxemb. 119: 55-61.
• Krombach, J.-H.-G., 1875. Flore du grand-duché de Luxembourg. Plantes phanérogames. 564 p. Luxembourg, Imprimerie Joris.
• Lambinon J. & F. Verloove, 2012. Nouvelle flore de la Belgique, du grand-duché de Luxembourg, du Nord de la France et des régions voisines. Sixième édition. Avec la collaboration de L. Delvosalle, B. Toussaint, D. Geerinck, I. Hoste, F. Van Rossum, B. Cornier, R. Schumacker, A. Vanderpoorten et H. Vannerom. Jardin botanique national de Belgique, Meise. CXXXIX + 1195 pp. ISBN : 9789072619884.
• MNHNL, 2000-. Impatiens parviflora DC. in Recorder-Lux, database on the natural heritage of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Musée national d’histoire naturelle, Luxembourg. URL: https://mdata.mnhn.lu [Accessed 2019-10-09]
• MNHNL, iNaturalist & GBIF, 2019. Impatiens parviflora DC. in MNHNL-mdata, online portal combining species observation from Recorder-Lux, iNaturalist and GBIF. National Museum of Natural History, Luxembourg. URL: https://mdata.mnhn.lu [Accessed 2019-10-09]
• Pfeiffenschneider, M., P. Gräser & C. Ries, 2014. Distribution of selected neophytes along the main rivers of Luxembourg. Bull. Soc. Nat. luxemb. 115: 101-108. [PDF 3668 KB]
• Reichling, L., 1958. Notes floristiques – Observations faites dans le grand-duché de Luxembourg en 1956. Bull. Soc. Nat. luxemb. 61: 63-123. [PDF 3355 KB]
• Ries, C. & Y. Krippel, 2021. First records of 56 invasive alien vascular plants in Luxembourg. Bulletin de la Société des naturalistes luxembourgeois 123: 115-127. [PDF 241 KB]
• Ries, C., Y. Krippel & M. Pfeiffenschneider, 2020. Risk assessment after the Harmonia+ protocol of invasive alien vascular plant species in Luxembourg. Bull. Soc. Nat. luxemb. 122: 197-205. [PDF 132 KB]
• Ries, C., Y. Krippel, M. Pfeiffenschneider & S. Schneider, 2013. Environmental impact assessment and black, watch and alert list classification after the ISEIA Protocol of non-native vascular plant species in Luxembourg. Bull. Soc. Nat. luxemb. 114: 15-21. [PDF 652 KB]
• Van Valkenburg, J. L. C. H., N. Schoenenberger, B. T. L. H. van de Vossenberg, W. A. Man in’t Veld, M. Westenberg & E. Boer, 2019. A natural hybrid of Impatiens, in the introduced range, demonstrated by sequence analysis of the nuclear ribosomal DNA-gene repeat. Botany Letters 166: 144-152.