The Flower Language and Legend of Impatiens

Impatiens flower language

Don't touch me comes from its English alias Touch me not, which means Don't touch me in American English, because its seed pods will eject many seeds with just a slight touch.

The legend of Impatiens

According to legend, a long time ago, there was a girl named Fengxian in Longxi, Fujian. She was tall and graceful, gentle and kind, and she fell in love with a boy named Jintong.

One day, the county magistrate's son passed by and saw Fengxian was so beautiful and lovely that he suddenly had evil intentions and came to tease her. After being scolded by Fengxian, he left in shame. Fengxian knew that she had gotten into big trouble now, and the county magistrate's son would definitely cause trouble. So he decided to go to another place with Jintong. Fengxian only has a father, and Jintong has a mother. The two old people and two children set out overnight to escape to a distant place. On the way, Jintong's mother fell ill and suffered from amenorrhea and abdominal pain. There was no place to seek medical treatment or medicine in the wild mountains, so the four of them had to stop to rest.

Besides, when the county magistrate heard that his son was scolded by the village girl, he ordered his men to capture Fengxian. When they were about to catch up with her, Fengxian and Jintong had no choice but to bid farewell to their parents and jumped into the abyss to preserve their chastity.

The two old men suppressed their grief and buried Fengxian and Jintong together. At night, the two old men slept by the grave. Fengxian and Jintong appeared in their parents' dreams at night, telling them that the flowers blooming in the mountain stream could cure their mother's illness. When I woke up the next day, I saw that the mountain stream was full of red and white flowers. The red ones looked like the morning glow, and the white ones looked like pure silver. The old man picked the flowers and boiled them into a decoction, and after drinking it, his illness was cured.

Later, people named this flower Impatiens in commemoration.