Native Plants

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Saturday - March 10, 2012

From: austin, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Non-Natives, Herbs/Forbs
Title: Looking for Mimosa pudica plants in Austin, TX.
Answered by: Jimmy Mills

QUESTION:

Where can I buy a Mimosa pudica plant in or near Austin? I don't want seeds, but a few small actual plants. Thanks!

ANSWER:

Mimosa pudica, also known as Sensitive Plant, is an interesting and entertaining plant. It is commonly used in Biology classes to illustrate plant growth movements termed thigmonasty (or seismonasty).

However, it is a native of Brazil and therefore falls outside the focus of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center whose mission is to increase the sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants and landscapes. This link to gardenguides.com indicates that it is considered to be an invasive weed in the Gulf Coast States.

Checking our National Suppliers Directory was not helpful, so I decided to check on the web. Looking for Mimosa pudica on Google yields several sites that sell seeds, but Logee’s Plants for Home and Garden in Connecticut, and toptropicals.com in Florida are the only sites that I found that offer plants for sale.

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