Impatiens balfourii (common names: Kashmir Balsam)

I have not seen this one round here, but you might like to know that the Himalayan Balsam, appeared to have only a short germination period, which I imagine depended on soil temperature, I accidentally sprayed a crop of them as seedlings and no further seedlings appeared that year or next.

I googled this to make sure it was not the same plant as Himalayan Balsam, as I wasn't sure. No, I have not come across it here in West Somerset, UK. Himalayan Balsam, however, is rife along the stream banks, rivers and canals in this area. It's pernicious weed here! I hope that yours is not like that!

Not just West Somerset spritz. I remember my mother finding it in East Devon when I was a teenager. I saw it in a Yellow Book garden near Fareham last month and I know where it grows by a stream only a couple of miles from me here in east Berkshire

Spritz & Andrew - I think Himalayan Balsam is endemic (is that the right word?) throughout Britain these days. It is everywhere you look near the rivers in Herefordshire and I recenty went down to Weston-Super-Mare and from there to Cheddar Gorge for the day and saw it everywhere along the Wye, Severn and tributaries. Very pretty, but out-competes our precious native species. :-(

Himalayan Balsam has rather short germination period indeed - in some experiments almost all seeds germinated rapidly together. The plant is most succesfull invader amongst all Impatiens - it is growing now even in southern Alaska, as far north as Russian Murmansk.
Kashmir Balsam just emerged as potentially invasive plant, at the moment mainly in southern Europe, but with global warming it could be more noxious in future.
Sid - endemic is wrong word for Himalayan Balsam in Britain. "Endemic" means growing only in this country, region, etc.

Thanks for the correction.

I think you mean 'naturalised' Sid

No, I think there is another word......trying to think of it........no, it'll probably come to me in the middle of the night and then I'll have forgotten it again in the morning.....

Edit: Just looked endemic up in my dictionary and it says, 'commonly found in a specified area or people'. That's kinda what I meant it to mean?!