''Mimosa rubicaulis'' is a shrub belonging to the family Fabaceae and subfamily

Mimosoideae The Mimosoideae are a traditional subfamily of trees, herbs, lianas, and shrubs in the pea family (Fabaceae) that mostly grow in tropical and subtropical climates. They are typically characterized by having radially symmetric flowers, with petals ...

. It is bipinnately compound, each leaf having 8–12 pairs of pinnae, each with 16–20 pairs of pinnules, unlike ''

Mimosa pudica ''Mimosa pudica'' (from la, pudica "shy, bashful or shrinking"; also called sensitive plant, sleepy plant, action plant, touch-me-not, shameplant) is a creeping annual or perennial flowering plant of the pea/legume family Fabaceae. It is often g ...

'' which has at most two prickly pairs of leaflets. It is found across

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Description

''Mimosa rubicaulis'' is a large, straggling, very prickly shrub. It flowers from June to September, sporting long clusters of many pink spherical flower heads 1–1.5 cm across. The flowers fade to white, so the clusters sport both pink and white flower-heads most of the time. Leaves are double-compound, 8–15 cm long, with thorny

rachis In biology, a rachis (from the grc, ῥάχις [], "backbone, spine") is a main axis or "shaft". In zoology and microbiology In vertebrates, ''rachis'' can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, which encase the spinal cord. In this c ...

. Leaves have 3–2 pairs of side-stalks, each with 6–15 pairs of tiny oblong leaflets 4–8 mm. Pods are thin, flat, curved, 8–13 cm long, 1 cm wide, breaking into 4–10 rectangular single-seeded units, leaving the remains of the pod attached to the shoot. It is considered useful for hedges. The wood is suitable for tent pegs and for making gunpowder charcoal. Roots and leaves are used medicinally. Himalayan Mimosa is found in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...

, from

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

, at altitudes of 300–1900 m. It prefers forest edges and boundaries of fields and gardens.

References

External links

* * rubicaulis Flora of Nepal Taxa named by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck {{Mimosoideae-stub