Earlier in the year, I posted about the mimosa tree (also called the Persian silk tree), but there is also another type of mimosa out there. It is the mimosa vine or sunshine mimosa. Like the tree, the vine produces a beautiful round, pink flower that resembles a powder puff (it is sometimes called a powderpuff plant or powderpuff vine). Unlike the tree, though, the vine stays spreading along the ground. It can actually cover some good sized patches of ground. That is how I discovered it. I had been noticing some mimosa type flowers in a patch of grass on the roadside on my drive back and forth to work. Over the course of several weeks, I noticed the patch of flowers getting larger and larger. At first, I had thought that it was little mimosa trees since they are known to spread and grow pretty quickly, but these weren’t getting taller. I was intrigued, so I had to stop.

It was only after I stopped that I realized how big the patch of flowers really was. I took a few pictures of the expanse of flowers and then tried to get some closer photos of individual flowers. While I was working on that, I started to realize, that there were quite a few butterflies and bees attracted to the flowers. I began to move into the patch of flowers in hopes of getting closer to one particular butterfly. Then I realized that everywhere I stepped the plant seemed to wilt and droop. Now, my prime rule as a nature photographer is to do no harm to my subjects, so I quickly abandoned the butterfly and got out of the flowers as quickly as I could with as few steps as possible. I went back to getting photos from the edge of the patch and feeling badly about harming the plant. When I was ready to go, I decided to get one more photo of the whole patch and I realized that I could no longer see my tracks! I went closer to where I had first entered the patch, and the plants looked fine. Wow! That is what made me have to try to touch the plant. And pretty cool! Every place I touched, the plant leaves curled up on themselves! After a few minutes undisturbed they opened up again! I later learned that the mimosa vine is what is known as a sensitive plant. When touched, the leaves curl up to protect themselves. When the danger is gone they unfurl into a normal position again.

I stopped by the mimosa vine patch several times and took pictures of the flowers and the bees and butterflies. Each time I stopped, the patch had grown bigger. Unfortunately, one afternoon as I headed home, I realized that the flowers were all gone! They had been there in the morning! The DOT had been out and mowed the road shoulders. My flowers came back several times over the course of the summer, but never in such big numbers as there had been the first time. It’s winter now, and they are completely gone, but come spring, I’m sure they will be back again.