|Impatiens glandulifera flower.|
It's interesting to speculate whether specialised bee flowers such as this would have survived in New Zealand without their pollinators. Probably something else would have done the job, but maybe not so efficiently. New Zealand native bees are solitary (they aren't social bees) and they have short tongues so they can't probe deep into flowers. They're important pollinators of many native flowers, especially the genus Veronica (e.g., hebes and their relatives).
Nowadays we lament the loss of honey bees due to varroa mite and pesticides, and worry about the effect on crop and fruit tree pollination. But if these bees weren't here, maybe some weeds wouldn't do so well.
Impatiens fruits are fun. They burst explosively when touched, scattering the seeds far and wide. I'm planning a series of posts on flowers and fruits that move, and this will definitely be one to include.