Touch-Me-Not

In early autumn children become fascinated with triggering by touch the energetic seed pods created by these jewelweed blossoms. Hanging by a thin wand from the 4-foot-high plant growing at the edge of our lawn, the many blossoms attract a singular bee that knows the back of the deep funnel contains sweet nectar. As the bee crawls completely into the blossom, the specialized pistil and stamen above the entrance throughly dusts the bee's hairy back with a stripe of pollen that the bee gladly carries to the next blossom's pistil that soon ripens into the fabulous exploding seed pod, which hurls its many seeds several feet when touched by delighted children of all ages.
The pale plant stalk reportedly contains a watery sap that when made into a poultice and rubbed on exposed skin neutralizes poison ivy oil. We leave that experiment and resulting report to more adventurous naturalists.