Insects find lifeline in the busiest of busy lizzies

Pop, pip, pop ... seedheads of Himalayan balsam are bursting in tiny explosions. The flower heads are chandeliers of red-green, glassy, pendants, which open into lipped, lobed, bulbous flowers like orchids from cerise to shell pink.

Each of these has a bee’s backside sticking out of it. When they’re pollinated and the petals crinkle and fall, the seedhead grenades are formed.

The first of these popped in Britain in 1839 when the plant was grown in gardens from seed collected in the Himalayas. Since then Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera), the busiest of busy lizzies, has colonised stream banks, river valleys and damp patches all over the country.

Sometimes this spread has been due to natural encroachment – the seeds can land seven metres away and are viable for two years. Sometimes it’s been caused by enthusiasts casting seeds.

This balsam has infiltrated popular culture under the names of policeman’s helmet, ornamental jewelweed, poor man’s orchid, stinky-pops, kiss-me-on-the-mountain, bee bums and Mr Noisy’s exploding plant. Yet it splits opinion.

Some – including the government – find it a nightmare weed, an alien invader with gaudy flowers and a noxious pong, a thug bullying native plants and swamping habitats. Because it is shade tolerant it dominates other plants and, being an annual, exposes stream banks to erosion when it dies back in winter. This brings out armies of volunteers, and sometimes the army, on balsam bashing operations.

Others appreciate its exotic splash of colour and scent and the nectar it provides, not only in its flowers but from glands under the leaf stalks. A vast number of insects, particularly bumblebees at the moment, feed on it when there are few other flowers about, and will do so until later in autumn when the frosts hit.

Where the climate gets warmer and wetter, plants like Himalayan balsam will thrive. Perhaps the tide of opinion is becoming more accepting of the colonists. The Himalayan balsam patch I’m watching is certainly growing rapidly and is full of life, unlike the thickets of buddleia, which are also garden escapes and have been around long enough to be prized as butterfly plants but are largely as empty as abandoned nightclubs this year. Hopefully Mr Noisy’s “outlaw” will give sanctuary to insects being wiped out in the rest of the landscape.

Knowing Wild Flowers

Wild flowers are plants that grow without any care from man. Some wild flowers are just as beautiful as garden flowers or hothouse flowers. The lovely plants that bloom in early spring in the woods often give more pleasure than any cultivated plant. The cacti that grow in the southwestern United States, and the marsh marigolds (cowslips) that grow in wet places from the Carolinas to the Arctic, add bright spots of color to the desert and marshes.

Many wild flowers are very hard to grow and are sometimes impossible to copy in gardens. The flowers that grow in the woods need an acid soil. Most of them need shade. Some can only grow in soil made of rotted oak leaves, or pine needles, or very special material.

Fringed gentian seeds must fall in exactly the right place to grow or they die very quickly. They could not be put in a packet and sold.
Many other plants, that are lovely in their showy enough for cultivation. They may only bloom for a day or the flowers may be very small. In the woods or waste places, however, they are a bright spot of color for people who enjoy the out-of-doors. Other wild flowers grow too well for gardens. The many varieties of bright wild peas and beans that bloom on southern wastelands grow so fast that they would quickly choke out garden flowers.

Of course, some wild flowers are cultivated. All cultivated flowers were once wild. The poinsettia is a wild plant of tropical Mexico and Central America. Geraniums grow wild in South Africa. It is interesting to find the wild ancestors of cultivated plants. Some plants that are wild in one part of the United States are cultivated in homes and gardens of other parts. Lupines grow wild in the west, but are sometimes raised in eastern gardens. Fields of wild California poppies brighten the western countryside. In the east, California poppies may be carefully planted in gardens.

Perhaps the best way to enjoy wild flowers is to learn to know them where they grow. Finding a patch of bloodroot, or arbutus, or hepatica in the woods can be a lot of fun. Finding some of the wild orchids like pink lady’s-slipper or the showy orchids of the spring is like finding a hidden treasure.
Sometimes when people find these flowers they feel that they must pick them and take them home with them. Usually this is selfish and often against the law. The petals of the bloodroot drop as soon as the flower is picked. Most woodland flowers wilt when they are carried in warm hands. Hepatica, spring beauty, and many others are too small to make good arrangements even if they do not wilt.
Picking the flower also keeps the plant from making seeds and new plants for people to enjoy. In some plants when the leaves are also picked the parent plant is killed too, for no food factory is left to store food in roots or bulbs for next year’s flowers.