Mimosa Pigra also known as bashful plant, catclaw mimosa, or giant sensitive plant, is native to tropical America where it occurs in a wide belt extending from Mexico through Central America to northern Argentina. MimosaPigra is a prickly shrub that forms impenetrable thickets, making areas inaccessible to man and animals. When mature, MimosaPigra is an erect, much branched prickly shrub reaching a height of 3m - 6m. Plants mature quickly and can set seed in their first year of growth. The MimosaPigra fruits and flowers all year round in some places, but its main fruiting season occur during the dry season (December to May). The stems are greenish at first but become woody, and are armed with broad-based. The straight leaves are bright green, 20 - 25cm long, erect or forward pointing, prickle at the junction of each of the 6-14 pairs of pinnate and sometimes with stouter spreading or deflexed prickles, up to 7 mm long, between the pairs. The narrowly lanceolate leaflets are very special; they fold together, when touched or injured, and at night. Flowering may begin 6 to 8 months following germination. The flowers are pink or mauve, small, regular and grouped into globular heads 1 - 2cm in diameter. The heads are borne on stalks 2 - 3cm long, with two in each leaf axils. They have a minute calyx, while the corolla has four lobes with eight pink stamens. The flowers are bee-pollinated and possibly wind-pollinated and develop in about 7 to 9 days. Flowering continues as long as water is available. The fruit is a thick hairy, 20-25 seeded, flattened pod borne in groups in the leaf axils, each 6.5 - 7.5cm long and 0.7 - 1cm wide. The fruit turns brown when mature, breaking into one-seeded segments. The pods are clustered, brown, densely bristly all over, breaking transversely into about 21 (14-26) partially dehiscent segments, each containing a seed, the pod sutures persisting as an empty frame. The seed pods develop in about 25 days. The seeds are brown or olive green, oblong, light, flattened, 4 - 6 mm long, and 2 mm wide and they are dispersed by water and floating for an indefinite period. Hardiness Zones: 9 ? 11, (-5c/25f, 4c/40f). Mimosa Pigra favors a wet-dry tropical climate and grows in open, moist sites such as floodplains, coastal plains and river banks. The Mimosa plant does not appear to grow preferentially in any soil type, but is found most commonly in soils ranging from black cracking clays to sandy clays to coarse siliceous river sand. Seed production and plant life expectancy are greater on black cracking clays than on the lighter clays and salty loams.