Saturday, October 9, 2010

Littleleaf Sensitive-briar (Mimosa microphylla)

Mimosa microphylla is known by the common names Littleleaf Sensitive-briar, Eastern Sensitive-briar, Sensitive Briar. This plant grows more as a ground cover in north Georgia; I've seen it in Walton, Barrow and Wilkes counties. At Fort Yargo State Park it grows along the lake shore near the Wil-A-Way Recreation Center (segment 9), south of the Fishing Area on the cliff by the slip-rail fence (segment 13), and east of the swimming beach (segment 14). This plant begins to bloom in mid June.

A plant growing on the shoreline at Fort Yargo State Park (segment 9).

A closer view.

Growing along the roadside in Walton County; this is one of the largest areas covered by Mimosa microphylla in the area.

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Close up views of the bloom.

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The leaves before and after being touched.

Seed pods developing.

A close up of a developing seed pod; these are very spiny.

A ‘ripe’ seed pod that has split longitudinally and dispersed its seeds.

A seed pod that still contains seeds.

A close up showing the seeds.

Mimosa microphylla (Littleleaf Sensitive-briar) is native to the United States. It grows from Virginia, Kentucky and Illinois south to Mississippi and .Florida; it also grows in Louisiana and Texas.
Click on an image to view a larger image

Distribution Map:
- United States Department of Agriculture Plants Database: Mimosa microphylla (Littleleaf Sensitive-briar)
- University of North Carolina Herbarium: Mimosa microphylla

Identification resources:
- Southeastern Flora: Littleleaf Sensitive-briar (Mimosa microphylla)
- Natural and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Mimosa microphylla (Eastern Sensitive-briar)
- Alabama Plants: Mimosa microphylla (Sensitive Briar)

Related posts:
- 2010: Year Of The Wildflower – Wildflower Index
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2 comments:

  1. DanaSeptember 23, 2015 at 2:27 PM

    Dear JSK,
    I work for the Encyclopedia of life (www.EOL.org) housed at the Smithsonian museum. We are making an effort to get content and images for species found in Okaloosa FL, for an education project with Okaloosa county schools. I came across your wonderful images of littleleaf sensitive-briar (M. microphylla), and wonder if you might consider letting us put some of them up on our species page.

    The Encyclopedia of Life has a mission to provide open access content for every known taxon on earth. This means that we only house content that is in the public domain or has a Creative Commons license (all except no derivative licenses). We would love to put your images up on EOL if you would be willing to license them with one of these. More info about Creative Commons can be found here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ or I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Your images, of course, would be attributed to you/your blog, which would give your blog increased exposure.

    Thank you for your writings! It is really fun to read through and your pictures are beautiful.

    Best regards,
    Dana Campbell
    Master Curator, www.EOL.org/users/35329

    ReplyDelete
  2. JSKSeptember 23, 2015 at 8:57 PM

    Dana
    I'd be happy to license the images for this use. The attribution should be: Joan S. Knapp.
    Regards
    jsk

    ReplyDelete