Blood drop emlets or wishfull thinking!

[pammosley]

Is this Blood drop emulet or an escapee? Found on the banks of a stream in Worcestershire today.
Thanks for taking the time to look

[davidbr]

It's actually a balsam - Orange Balsam, Impatiens capensis

Nice photo

[pammosley]

Thanks David. I thought it looked like Himalayan Balsam but was the wrong colour. I looked it up in one of my books & the Emlets was the nearest I could get Is it native? I would guess not. Ta again

[davidbr]

No, it's a garden escape that's generally less common than Himalayan Balsam (in the south, anyway) but established in similar places. There's lots of it in the Norfolk Broads.

These days it's so well naturalised that it's as good as wild, I suppose.