A tall leafy plant with succulent. translucent stems bearing nodding, usually pale yellow flowers occasionally splotched with reddish brown.

1 1/2" long; calyx tube ending in a short hooked spur.

1-4" long, alternate, thin, ovate, toothed.

Fragile, swollen, elliptical capsule; exploding at maturity, expelling seeds.

3-6'.

June-October.

Wet woods and meadows; often on mountainsides in wet, shady, limestone or neutral sites.

This soft-stemmed annual is less common than the very similar Spotted Touch-me-not. The sensitive triggering of seeds from the ripe capsule inspired these species' (as well as the Family's) common name touch-me-not. Policeman's Hat, a large, purple-flowered species with mostly whorled or opposite leaves, is found from Ontario east to Nova Scotia and south to Massachusetts.