mimosa

mimosa

1. any tropical shrub or tree of the leguminous genus Mimosa, having ball-like clusters of yellow or pink flowers and compound leaves that are often sensitive to touch or light

2. any similar or related tree

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Mimosa

(mi-moh -să, -ză) See Beta Crucis.

Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006

mimosa

mimosa

Fern-like leaves fold up at night, sensitive to human touch. Pink and white wispy flowers look like pink hair, flat brown pea-type pods. Flowers and bark used as a sedative for depression, anxiety, insomnia

Edible Plant Guide © 2012 Markus Rothkranz

Mimosa

[mə′mō·sə]

(astronomy)

β Crucis

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Mimosa

 

a genus of plants of the family Mimosaceae. They include perennial grasses, shrubs (at times twining), and trees. The plants often have spines that are modified sepals. The leaves are bipinnate, and the small flowers are in capitate or spicate inflorescences. The fruit is a scarious or leathery pod, which usually separates into segments upon ripening. There are between 450 and 500 species, distributed primarily in tropical and subtropical America; a few species are found in Africa and Asia. The leaves of some species are sensitive. This sensitivity is particularly pronounced in the sensitive mimosa (Mimosa pudicd), a shrub or subshrub widespread in the tropics of both hemispheres. When touched or with the approach of darkness, the leaflets fold together in pairs, and then the entire leaf droops. At times, species of the genus Acacia that grow on the Black Sea shore of the Caucasus are called mimosas (for example, Acacia dealbatd).

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.