The plant was identified at the Royal Botanical Garden Kew in 1901 and was discovered in 1899 in the Shaw States of Burma. It is only found in portions of Burma and northern Thailand and as such is quite rare. According to the grower it is very difficult to cultivate and requires a local natural pollinator to produce seeds. It also requires very specific soil pH in order to prosper and produce the "blue" coloration. The plant was originally published in 1901 in the Curtis Botanical Journal Magazine, Tab 7809. The plant was credited as having been discovered in the Shan States of Upper Burma in 1899 by a British officer named A.H. Hildebrand who was working on a new boundary agreement between Thailand and Burma, then known as Siam. In that publication botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker described the species as resembling a "cockatoo suspended by a string from its shoulders".
Hooker lived from 1817-1911 and is the botanist of record who gave this species its name. The Latin name Hooker chose, "psittacina", fittingly means "parrot like". Hooker examined specimens grown at the Royal Botanical Garden Kew in Britain but did his original work on the plant in India. It is however unclear whether Hooker drew his work from a live specimen or preserved flowers. Hooker mentions in his description plants seen at the Kew in London were grown from wild collected seed furnished by A.H. Hildebrand. The plants in England did not produce seed, possibly due to the lack of natural pollinators or by a lack of understanding at the time as to how Impatiens species can be artificially pollinated. Although unknown for certain, the seed is likely to have a long viability since in 1901 mail was done only by boat, foot and horse. However, some Impatiens experts today appear to doubt the species has a long viability.
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