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Nuttall's sensitive-briar

Mimosa nuttallii

Nuttall's sensitive-briar
Photo: Eric Hunt, CC BY-SA 4.0
Family
Fabaceae (Pea & bean family)
Grows as
Climber, Perennial
Native range
Colorado to Illinois and Louisiana
Climate
temperate

About

Mimosa nuttallii, the Nuttall's sensitive-briar, catclaw brier, or sensitive brier, is an herbaceous perennial legume in the subfamily Mimosoideae native to the central United States. It has a trailing semi-woody vine covered with small recurved prickles that can be painful to bare skin.

The ribbed stems of this plant usually grow to 4 ft (1.2 m) or more and are branched. Plants rarely reach more than 1–2 ft (0.3–0.6 m) in height. The frond-like leaves are alternate with prickly stalks. The bipinnate leaf blades are divided into four to nine pairs of small segments, and these are again divided into 8–15 pairs of tiny leaflets. Leaflets are elliptic and glabrous with a prominent midrib.

Other Mimosa plants

Catclaw mimosa · Mimosa andina · Fragrant mimosa · Mimosa caesalpiniifolia · Giant false sensitive plant · Mimosa disperma · Mimosa hamata · Creeping Sensitive Plant · Mimosa loxensis · Sensitivebriar · Mimosa nothacacia · Mimosa ophthalmocentra

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mimosa nuttallii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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