Balsams or Impatiens are have been known for their elegant and delicate nature and widely cultivated as ornamental plant, which shows high rate of endemism. The species of balsams are in abundance in Western Ghats; interestingly most of the plants found here cannot be spotted anywhere else in the world. Scapigerous species of Impatiens are a unique group in the region and it differs from other balsams with a modified stem in the form of a rhizome. It is highly depended on the Southwest monsoon and susceptible to landslides and forest fires. Wet rocks near drizzling water, moss covered tree trunks and the grasslands are the prominent distribution zones and some spreads over a few square kilometers and some are found merely in particular mountain top. Their distribution is on elevation ranges from 700 to 2500 m ASL.
Impatiens minae, a plant described by MSSRF scientists from the higher reaches of Chembra hills, Wayanad in 2011. The name was in honor of Ms. Mina Swaminathan for her valuable contributions in the field of education and biodiversity conservation. . It is distributed in the open wet and dripping slops of camels hump mountain ranges in an elevation of 1600 to 2000m ASL with a distinctiveness of dense band of papillae in the lateral petals with a thick curved spur. Flowering starts from July end and ends its life cycle at the end of October.