The jewelweed plant can grow to be more than three feet tall with leaves that are tender, oval shaped, and scalloped. You will notice that when water collects on the leaves, they appearlike little jewels, and often roll right off.
There may be fine hairs or no hair at all on the upper surface of the leaf; if jewelweed has hairs on all surfaces it is usually more robust. The lower surface of jewelweed’s leaves may also have fine hair.
The flowers of jewelweed are either single or in clusters of two or three together and grow at the leaf axils (the point where the leaf stem meets the main stem). Flowers that grow in clusters usually look alike and can vary in color from bright yellow to orange to red; however, individual jewelweed flowers that grow alone can be somewhat different shades. Some jewelweed plants do not produce showy flowers – instead, they branch out from their main stems with many tiny greenish-white buds along its length about an inch above the leaves – these buds appear before the flowers.
The jewelweed plant is a perennial, meaning it lives for several years and produces seeds each year until the plant finally dies. After its flowers fade, jewelweed plants produce shiny green seedpods, which split open when they are ripe to expel their seeds!