Impatiens hochstetteri subsp. hochstetteri

Impatiens hochstetteri subsp. hochstetteri, the common wild impatiens or common wild forest impatiens, is a soft herb, sometimes surviving to be a perennial, in other cases only an annual. The branched stems are brittle and semi-succulent. The plants are from 10 cm to 40 cm tall, growing in colonies.

The spirally arranged leaves have slender petioles of 1,5 cm to 5 cm are present. The leaf-shape is narrowly ovate ending in long, attenuating tips. The margins are angularly toothed or roundly scalloped. There are hair tufts between the leaf teeth. The blades are slightly hairy and often glossy with midribs and lateral veins sunken on the upper surfaces. Leaf dimensions are 5 cm to 10 cm long by 5 cm wide.

The species is distributed in the eastern parts of South Africa, from the coastal east of the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the far east of the Free State to Mpumalanga and Limpopo. The plant also occurs in some neighbouring countries, including Lesotho, eSwatini and Zimbabwe.

The habitat is forests, damp shady spots and streambanks. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century.

The plant features in traditional medicine related to the treatment of eczema. It is used in gardens as a groundcover in moist, shaded places (Manning, 2009; Germishuizen and Clarke, 2003; Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).