Impatiens namchabarwensis 'Blue Sky', the world's first multi-flowering blue Busy Lizzie!

Original Species

The original species of this new introduction was found in one of the least explored regions of Tibet as recently as 2003. The Namchabarwa canyon, or Tsangpo Gorge as it is sometimes known (Tsangpo meaning 'purifier'), is the deepest in the world. It is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River and 500 kilometres long, that's the distance from London to Land's End! The gorge has only been mapped as recently as 1994, and there is no major road within 100 kilometres, so any exploration had to be done on foot.

Field Trip

Yuan Yong-Ming and Ge Xue-Jun made a field trip in August 2003, taking them 5 days to reach the canyon. On the day they found the Impatiens, it was a rainy day, 23C. It is ironically the only visit they made to the area, so it really was a chance finding! The area passes through many different climate zones, such as glaciers and rainforest, which creates an undisturbed eco-system, home to thousands of unique species undiscovered, so of course barely affected by human influence. The rare 'tapin', a goat-antelope animal, can be found here and is hunted by local tribes. It is in this Gorge that they found the rare blue-flowered Impatiens namchabarwensis, growing 100 metres from the river, on the southeast side of the highest peak of the eastern Himalaya, at an altitude of 930m, in open shrubland, near the margins of a broad-leaved forest. The sapphire-blue flowers were recognised as a unique colour to the Balsaminaceae family, and the plant was seen to be pollinated by a hawk moth.

The Everest of Rivers

The river that runs through the Gorge, the Tsangpo is known as the 'Everest of Rivers' because of it's height, it is 3000 metres above sea level, as well as the extreme conditions of the river. Attempts to explore it in 1993 and 1998 resulted in loss of lives. The first successful descent into the Gorge was made in 2002. The Gorge and its waters are considered sacred in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. It is considered by many Tibetans to be 'Shangri-La', a mythical Himalayan utopia, a phrase coined by James Hilton's 1933 novel, 'Lost Horizon' and which has become synonymous with any earthly paradise.