Today at the Flower Parade, I just read, we're going to be doing a little bit illegal.
Today I put the Springbalsemien in the sun: a cheerful little flower that moves playfully on a thin stem in the wind.
The bees in our garden love it, and I always laugh very much when I see a bumblebee flying into the flower, because then you can see the whole flower burst out of its joints (I haven't managed to get this in the picture yet, unfortunately).
The lower two lips split apart, and back again as soon as the bumblebee is in the flower (it's almost erotic!)

The jumping balsamine has the pestle and stamens at the top of the flower, bees they visit often get a white stripe on their backs, from the pollen.
The flower blooms July-September, and then the plant forms seed boxes, which, as soon as they are ripe, jump open when you touch them.
The seeds then jump out.
The plant can grow up to 2 meters high, in our garden they have never been higher than a centimeter or 70.
There are more plants that do that, and I remember that I enjoyed it very much as a child.

But why is this funny little plant illegal?
Since August 2, 2017, the plant is on the list of prohibited plants in the European union (I admit, I did not know this).
This is because it is an invasive plant: when the seed boxes open, many seeds spread.
So if you don't pay attention you have your garden/berm full of jumping balms in no time!
In the wild, the plant oppresses the native plants, because it takes away all the sun and space.
In winter, the jumping balms are completely gone, so you have bare ground.
It's prone to erosion again. So go: on the forbidden list with it.

Now I'm from team bees, and we keep track of our garden, so the jumping balms can stay with us anyway.
The young plants in the spring are well recognizable, and we dilute the population every year (by about 80%).
Funny fact is that I got to know the plant because my father got seeds from someone, seeds that were brought from the gardens of Monet.
With us, the flowers are called “Monets”.

#flowerparade #springbalsemien #verbodenplant #invasieveplant #goedintoomhouden #speelsbloemetje #bijenplanten