Mimosa
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Authority
Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.
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Family
Mimosaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Description - Herbs, shrubs or rarely trees, mostly with 2-pinnate, often sensitive leaves, the small regular, mostly 4-5-parted, perfect or sometimes polygamous flowers in axillary, peduncled heads or spikes. Calyx small, its teeth short. Petals valvate, connate below, hypogynous. Stamens as many as the petals or twice as many, distinct; exserted; filaments mostly filiform; anthers small, eglandular. Ovary 2-many-ovuled; style slender or filiform; stigma terminal, small. Pod linear or oblong, usually flat, often transversely jointed, 2-valved with the continuous margins persistent. Seeds compressed. [Greek, referring to the sensitive leaves of some species.] Over 300 species, natives of tropical and warm regions. Type species: Mimosa sensitiva L.