Plant Database

From the Image Gallery

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Shrub
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Leaf Complexity: Bipinnate
Fruit Type: Legume
Leaf: "Stipules firm, ovate or lanceolate, more or less 2-5 (-6) x 1-2 mm, extemally densely silky-strigose, glabrous castaneous within, usually not visibly nerved extemally and if so only distally and then not over 5-nerved, the blades becoming dry and brittle but normally persistent; leaf-stalks of fully grown leaves (4-) 6-20 (-24) cm, the petiole including discolored pulvinus 3-16 (-20) x 0.8-2.4 mm, the interpinnal segments 6-20 (-22) mm, shallowly sulcate both ventrally and laterally, the ventral groove bridged and charged between pinna-pairs with a stiffly ascending, stramineous or brownish, glabrous or basally puberulent spicule (0.5-) 1.5-14 (-23)mm; pinnae (6-) 8-14 (-16) juga, either subequilong or proximally decrescent, the rachis of longer ones (2-) 3-7 (-8) cm, the longer interfoliolar segments mostly 0.6-1.2 mm; leaflets of longer pinnae 25-44 (-48) juga, decrescent only at very ends of rachis, the first pair less than 1 mm distant from minute conic or subulate paraphyllidia, the blades linear from obtusangulate or shallowly blunt-auriculate base, acute or apiculate, those near mid-rachis 5-12 x 0.6-1.7 (-2) mm, (5-) 5.5-9 (-10) times as long as wide, all smooth veinless above, beneath 4-5-nerved, the subcentric midrib and parallel lateral nerves all finely prominulous." (bibref: 1811).
Flower: "Peduncles 1.5-7 (-8) cm; capitula without filaments 8-12 x 6-9 mm, usually moriform prior to anthesis but bracts sometimes as long as the obtuse, scabrous-setulose flower buds; bracts linear-oblanceolate 1-3.6 x 0.2-0.5 mm, 1- or 3-nerved, beyond middle either setulose, puberulent or glabrous dorsally, always setulose-ciliolate; flowers with paleaceous calyces, consisting of shallow brown campanulate cups 0.3- 0.6 mm tall surmounted by four (sometimes unequal, asymmetric) lobes setose-decompound to variable depth, the whole 1-1.8 mm long; corolla 4 (-5)-merous diplostemonous, narrowly turbinate, the ovate 1- or partly 2 (-3)-nerved lobes 0.8-1.3 X 0.6-0.95 mm; filaments pale pink or lilac fading whitish, sometimes whitish from the first, united at base into a stemonozone about 0.5 mm, exserted 1.5-5 mm." (bibref: 1811).
Fruit: "Pods solitary or commonly 2-several, occasionally to 18 per capitulum, in profile linear or broad-linear, straight or slightly curved, 4-12 (-13) x (0.6-) 0.7-1.5 cm, abruptly contracted at base into a stout stipe 1-5 (-7) mm, broadly rounded and abruptly cuspidulate at apex, either plano-compressed or compressed but turgid, the replum 0.6-1.2 mm wide, the brownish-green, reddish-brown or livid, either thinly or stiffly chartaceous valves either setose with erect, variably broad-based and variably crowded or distant setae to 2-4.5 (-6) mm and sometimes in addition minutely puberulent, less commonly shortly and sparely strigose with finer tapering, forwardly ascending or appressed setae to about 2 mm, when ripe breaking into 14-21 (-24) or exceptionally only 8-13 (or by abortion of ovules fewer) free-falling articles, those near mid-pod 2.5-4.5 mm long (hence about 2-4 times broader than long), that at each end of pod longer, all either individually indehiscent, closed at each end by a septum 0.2-2 mm wide, or dehiscent and not or only very narrowly membranous-septate, the seeds consequently shed, as the case may be, either encapsulated (when readily water-bome) or naked (when instantly submersible); seeds transverse, narrowly compressed-oblong-ellipsoid about 4.5-6 X 2-2.6 mm, the smooth testa olivaceous or brown-olivaceous dull. " (bibref: 1811).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: White , Pink
Bloom Time: Jan , Feb , Mar , Apr , May , Jun , Jul , Aug , Sep , Oct , Nov , Dec

Distribution

USA: FL , TX
Native Distribution: Texas, Florida, Central and South America and the West Indies.
Native Habitat: "On stream banks and seasonally flooded shores, along ditches and in seasonally wet savanna or scrub-savannas." (bibref: 1811).

National Wetland Indicator Status

Region:	AGCP	AK	AW	CB	EMP	GP	HI	MW	NCNE	WMVE
Status:	FAC			FAC

This information is derived from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers National Wetland Plant List, Version 3.1 (Lichvar, R.W. 2013. The National Wetland Plant List: 2013 wetland ratings. Phytoneuron 2013-49: 1-241). Click here for map of regions.

Bibliography

Bibref 1811 - Sensitivae censitae : a description of the genus Mimosa Linnaeus (Mimosaceae) in the New World (1991) Barneby, Rupert C.

Search More Titles in Bibliography

Research Literature

Reslit 2886 - Legumes of the United States. IV. Mimosa (1971) Duane Isely

This information was provided by the Florida WIldflower Foundation.
Search More Titles in Research Literature

Additional resources

USDA: Find Mimosa pellita in USDA Plants
FNA: Find Mimosa pellita in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Mimosa pellita