Mimosa Revisited

On June 27th, I posted the flowers of our mimosa tree located over the pond in the back yard. It has been a little over a month and the blossoms are gone and the seed pods have developed nicely.



Mimosa are also called Silk trees. They reproduces both vegetatively and by seed. Silk tree seeds have impermeable seed coats that allow them to remain dormant for many years. One study showed that 90% of the seeds were viable after five years and, for another species of mimosa, a third of its seeds germinated after 50 years in open storage. Seeds are mostly dispersed below or around the parent plant, but can be dispersed further by water. Silk trees grow rapidly under good conditions but are short-lived and have weak, brittle wood. If cut or top-killed, trees resprout quickly and sprouts can grow over three feet in a season.