Nuttall’s sensitive-briar
Similar to the sensitive-briar you recently saw from Burnet County is one from an April 27th field trip to Bastrop State Park led by botanist Bill Carr. This time the species is Mimosa nuttallii, known as Nuttall’s sensitive-briar. Here you get a good look at the way the compound leaves of both species close up when something touches them, hence the sensitive part of the name sensitive-briar.
© 2014 Steven Schwartzman
Beautiful flower.
Dan Traun
June 17, 2014 at 6:21 AM
It is, and the plant’s moving leaflets are a little wonder.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2014 at 6:34 AM
Sure are. I’ve never seen such a thing.
Dan Traun
June 17, 2014 at 6:36 AM
I just added a link in the post’s second sentence that includes information about the mechanism by which the leaflets close and reopen.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2014 at 6:46 AM
Oh, and there’s a video of the phenomenon in the right margin of the article at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimosa
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2014 at 7:54 AM
i noted one ‘ambling’ across and up a young tree in my yard this past week.. it has a lemon-yellow colored flower, however! i’d go inspect it closer right now, but i’m traveling (on my way to CR)
in CR, i will photograph that spiny lantana for you…
z
Playamart - Zeebra Designs
June 17, 2014 at 7:32 AM
That’s a coincidence, because the first time I ever saw a sensitive-briar (I don’t know what species) was in Honduras in 1968 or ’69, in the outskirts of Tegucigalpa. It made an impression on me because I still remember it all these years later.
Here in Austin we have a couple of species of Neptunia, which have leaves that close up like the sensitive-briar’s but whose flowers are yellow. Perhaps the plant in your yard is in that genus.
Happy visit to Costa Rica. We’ll look forward to the souvenirs from your trip.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2014 at 7:50 AM
Beautiful! I do love Mimosa 🙂
Sarah Longes - Mirador Design
June 17, 2014 at 7:35 AM
It’s a huge genus, with some 400 members, and the species in it vary quite widely. The sensitive-briar used to be classified in the genus Schrankia, but now it’s a Mimosa.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2014 at 8:04 AM
Interesting! They do that sometimes when they have more genetic information on the species. Most Mimosa I’ve seen have been red or pink. Love this colour 🙂
Sarah Longes - Mirador Design
June 17, 2014 at 8:09 AM
In the 15 years I’ve been paying attention to native plants, I’ve seen plenty of changes in botanical classification. If I were being frivolous—what, me frivolous?—I’d drop a letter and say it’s more classifiction than classification.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2014 at 8:59 AM
Ha ha ha! It’s a bit like when Pluto suddenly wasn’t a planet any more!
Sarah Longes - Mirador Design
June 17, 2014 at 9:04 AM
Good comparison. English planet comes from a Greek word that means ‘wander,’ so you might say that Pluto wandered into and then out of that classification. For more on what a planet currently is and isn’t, check the Usage Note at
http://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=planet
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2014 at 9:12 AM
Oh I love that! Wandered out…..
Steve, you’re very clever with words as well as the photography 🙂
Sarah Longes - Mirador Design
June 17, 2014 at 9:48 AM
I’d been heavily involved with language for a decade when I started doing photography. At
http://wordconnections.wordpress.com/
I have a blog devoted to the history of English and Spanish words.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2014 at 9:55 AM
Oh fantastic 🙂 Thanks for that Steve! Language is fascinating.
Sarah Longes - Mirador Design
June 17, 2014 at 10:59 AM
I like the rich color and the tiny drops of water.
Jim in IA
June 17, 2014 at 8:10 AM
I’ll take rich colors anytime.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2014 at 9:00 AM
This title caught my eye … as I have a colleague with the surname of Nuttall … nice color. D
Pairodox Farm
June 17, 2014 at 3:43 PM
Is he sensitive, or prickly, or colorful? (All are attributes of this plant).
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2014 at 4:12 PM
Delightful little flower as well as a charming and withdrawn foliage. I’ve only seen them as house plants where they were the life of the party….until the liquid Mimosas showed up.
Steve Gingold
June 17, 2014 at 4:16 PM
That strikes me as a comment I might have written, even if the plant form intoxicates me more than the liquid one.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2014 at 4:31 PM
Great minds, Steve.
Steve Gingold
June 17, 2014 at 4:33 PM
I guess we’ve both stood on the shoulders of giants.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2014 at 4:53 PM
Oh Steve, thanks for sharing this Mimosa! I’m in Florida now and I discovered Mimosa strigillosa here on the front sidewalk of where I’m staying. This one is round globose as M. pudica also. How many Mimosas have you shot so far? Soon, I will be going back to P.R. to my tropicals.
Maria F.
June 17, 2014 at 7:52 PM
Hi, Maria. If you scroll through
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/?s=mimosa
you can see the three native species of Mimosa I’ve shown. I’ve heard of M. strigillosa, which grows in some parts of Texas but not my area. It was probably M. pudica that I encountered in Hounduras 45 years ago, the first time I ever saw a plant whose leaves close up when touched.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2014 at 8:21 PM
M. strigillosa is supposed to grow in TX, according to the USDA map, FL, LA, MS, AR, and GA., and it’s not completely globose I found out. It also grows closer to the ground and it’s easier to keep as a groundcover.
Maria F.
June 17, 2014 at 8:32 PM
We call them the shy plant.
neihtn2012
June 18, 2014 at 7:18 AM
My wife is from the Philippines, and in her language the name for the plant also means ‘the shy one.’ One vernacular English name that I’ve read about for plants in this genus is shame-boy.
Steve Schwartzman
June 18, 2014 at 7:31 AM
I like the way the tiny water droplets echo the bits of pollen, and I love that you’ve captured the leaves folded rather than open. But what I like the most is the way the pair of folded leaves resembles someone holdling their hands up to their face — as if in a gesture of shyness or chagrin.
shoreacres
June 19, 2014 at 7:35 PM
I think this was the first time I’d photographed a wet sensitive-briar flower globe, so the drops were a new element for me to play with in portraying this kind of plant. As you might have noticed in the previous comment and response, in various languages the name for the sensitive-briar incorporates the notion of shyness. I hadn’t seen the two folded leaves in this picture as shielding covering a face, but you make a good case for that.
Steve Schwartzman
June 19, 2014 at 7:57 PM
[…] column has brought you several pictures of sensitive-briars, whose compound leaves perform the neat trick of folding up within seconds after something touches […]
Another sensitive plant | Portraits of Wildflowers
July 16, 2014 at 5:56 AM