October 10, 2024, 11:10 am | Read time: 4 minutes

The plant from India and the Himalayan region is also known as Himalayan balsam. myHOMEBOOK explains whether Indian balsam should be controlled in your own garden and how this works.

How did Indian balsam come to Europe?

Indian balsam likely made its way from India to Europe around 1839, prized as an ornamental plant for gardens. Additionally, beekeepers valued Indian balsam flowers as a source of forage for bees, contributing to the plant’s spread. From the gardens, balsam eventually spread mainly along rivers and other rather damp areas. Furthermore, Indian balsam is spreading even more because of climate change, with its associated temperature increases in Central and Northern Europe.

Is Indian balsam an invasive plant threatening native species?

Anyone who has ever seen Indian balsam will quickly realize why the plant is considered invasive. The term applies to all introduced species that spread massively in their new habitat. They compete with native species for food, light, nutrients, and space.

Indian balsam not only grows to a considerable height, overshadowing other plants quite literally. It also has a high water requirement. When planted in a bed with other species, Indian balsam can monopolize light and water, leading to the demise of its botanical neighbors. In the wild, this can lead to the disappearance of entire plant populations, including endangered wild plants.

As some butterfly and wild bee species, as well as other insects and even birds, depend on the flowers or leaves of many wild plants as a food source for themselves or their offspring, invasive plant species can also impact wildlife. This is why Indian balsam is also considered invasive and should be controlled as it spreads.

Combating Indian balsam in the garden

Once you have Indian balsam in your garden, you may not be able to get rid of it so quickly. Precautionary measures must therefore be taken to prevent it from spreading further. However, the plant has one major advantage over some other invasive species. It is only an annual, which means that it cannot spread further via rhizomes or offshoots.

Balsam, on the other hand, spreads with the help of seed capsules, which burst open when ripe. This is how they spread their seeds over a large radius. This process has also given the plant its name. This is due to the seed capsule’s tendency to burst open forcefully, propelling the seeds as far as seven meters away.

This also makes it clear how the neophyte is contained: The plant must be removed before it forms seeds. If an Indian balsam plant already has seed capsules, it must no longer be disposed of in the compost but only in the residual waste. This is because the plant would otherwise spread even further via the compost spread in the garden. But how can hobby gardeners recognize balsam before it flowers?

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Identifying Indian balsam and distinguishing it from other species

Even within our climate zone, there are native balsam species that should be preserved. For instance, the greater balsam, despite its name, is significantly smaller than Indian balsam, reaching only up to one meter in height and bearing yellowish flowers. It serves as a crucial food source for caterpillars, is favored by bumblebees for nectar collection, and thrives even in shaded environments.

Indian balsam can be distinguished from greater balsam even before flowering by observing the leaf shape and arrangement; greater balsam has alternately arranged leaves with slightly rounded teeth. In contrast, Indian or glandular balsam features leaves that are oppositely arranged and have a slightly toothed edge.