Mimosa – there are a number of trees, shrubs, or herbs of the genus Mimosa of the family Leguminosae (pulse family), they are mostly tropical plants.
They usually have feathery foliage and rounded clusters of fragrant pinkish flowers atop the branches. Mimosas are used for ornamental purposes in warm regions. The yellow-flowered plants sold as mimosa by florists are usually of the related genus Acacia (see acacia). Most widely known of the mimosas is the sensitive plant (M. pudica), considered a weed in the American tropics but cultivated as a greenhouse annual elsewhere because its leaves fold up and collapse under stimulus (e.g., touch, darkness, or drought) until the whole plant may assume temporarily a thoroughly wilted appearance. It is now naturalized in many warm regions and grows wild in the Gulf states. The name sensitive plant is also applied to other plants of this family that show similar movements. Mimosa is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Rosales, family Leguminosae. I was lucky this week to be able to photograph both kinds of mimosa tree at one go. See below.
I thought all the mimosa trees bloomed only in spring, and then I saw this different species of Golden Mimosa Tree (also known as Acacia) that blooms now in summer. The leaves don’t look like the usual mimosa family where they are usually small, compound and grow close together.
The other kind of Mimosa Tree is known as Silk Tree or Nemunoki (the Sleeping Tree) and is native to Japan. It has silky pink flowers.
NATURE IN JAPAN 