One of my favorite late summer flowers is jewelweed, also called touch-me-not. It grows in the ditches and damp places in the bottoms and along creek sides. They are our local
impatiens - only more exotic looking than the pink and white ones you get at the garden store.
We have two species:
Impatiens pallida, which is yellow; and
Impatiens capensis, which is orange with spots. They are both native to North America.
The yellow one, Pale Touch-Me-Not shows up in limestone regions and southern Indiana is one of the foremost limestone regions in the world. We're famous for our limestone.
And our touch-me-not.
The orange jewelweed is the most common jewelweed. There's a lot of healing lore around it - though none of that has been officially tested. [Few native plants have been officially investigated, but that doesn't mean they don't work, only that the medical establishment prefers other sources for medicines, etc.]
Jewelweed's most common homeopathic use is to treat skin ailments such as poison ivy. The stems of the plant are fleshy and when crushed, impart a lovely cooling gel similar to aloe.
The common name 'touch-me-not' comes from the fact that the ripe seed pods explode when touched, shooting the seeds out and about. I've never tried it, but it sounds kind of fun.
