#powderpuff mimosa flower

[rachelsrandomsphotos]

Powderpuff Mimosa (Mimosa strigillosa)

Taken at The Yoga Garden in Melbourne, FL

[samhoustoncampusfloraandfauna]

Sensitive Plant

Sensitive Plant or Powderpuff (Mimosa strigillosa)

Found on the east side of the Sam Houston parking garage, is a perennial (they grow year round) ground cover. The foliage sports interesting blooms of magenta, and while these blooms may seem to be one flower they are in fact a cluster of many smaller flowers. I've found that the clusters of strigillosa are more cone shaped than other mimosa flowers. Mimosas are one of the few plant species that are capable of rapid movement. The word mimosa stems from the Greek word mimos meaning "actor" or "mime" and the suffix -osa meaning "resembling", coming together to mean to mimic or resemble conscious life. The leaves on this plant will close in a matter of seconds after being touched, the plant likely adapted in this way to discourage predators from consuming its leaves. Like many other plants this one also closes its leaves at night to limit water loss while not photosynthesizing. The plants are in no way harmed when you touch them, so I highly recommend enjoying this phenomenon!

(native)

[parfumieren]

Eau de Fleur de Soie (Kenzo)

There is a tree, stunted and scoliotic, that can be found trailing its wispy foliage over the front yards of suburban South Jersey. This is the Persian silk tree -- Albizia julibrissin, AKA mimosa -- a leguminous native of Asia that has found new vitality in the Pine Barrens' sandy soil.

Neighborhood children derive endless delight from stroking its leaves to watch them snap shut (a self-protective trick botanists call seismonasty). Its papery seed pods can be written on with berry ink and passed as love notes; if the receiver doesn't care for the message, they can crumple the pod to powder in one hand. And during the summer, the silk tree produces spectacular clusters of finely tasseled coral-pink flowers. These make wonderful fantasy powderpuffs, but they seem to offer precious little in the way of natural perfume.

This seems to be the idea behind Fleur de Soie, the 2008 chapter of Kenzo's Eaux de Fleur serial. Fleur de Soie uses a flyaway silk tree blossom as its totem image, to great dramatic effect. But in reality, Fleur de Soie is all show and no scent.

Can a perfume be seismonastic? As I sprayed it on the inside of my arm, Fleur de Soie disappeared almost immediately, as if it could not bear to be in contact with my skin. I had to spray several more times to build up enough fragrance to analyze, only to find it saccharine and faintly metallic, self-effacing, almost a non-smell. Now, I know that perfumers love to claim the most exotic natural materials for their inspiration.... but with all the world's botanical references to choose from, Jean Jacques picked the very one whose primary instinct is to shrivel up and hide.

The sheer weakness of this composition points to a certain poverty of imagination in the perfumer. Most people have no idea what a silk tree blossom smells like. Why not make it smell like heaven-- or hell, if that's your whim? Even in fantasy -- no, ESPECIALLY in fantasy -- a flower ought to smell, well, if not good, then like something, anything. If the "silk flower" referenced by this perfume is the sort you buy in a craft store, then its lack of fragrance makes perfect sense. But even a fabric flower glued to a plastic stem is capable of being beautiful, or of evoking romance. Isn't it?

Alas, the only thing Fleur de Soie evokes is a glass of fruit punch so diluted with ice cube meltwater that it's lost all color and taste. No matter how sticky-sweet or artificially-flavored the full-strength beverage might be, it's GOT to be more fun than this.

ADDENDUM: This scent improved a thousandfold with the addition of a thin underlayer of amber. It grew pinker, sweeter, even hinting at a touch of black cherry essence. Perhaps Jean Jacques was so entranced with the vision of a weightless silk petal floating on the breeze that he entirely forgot the concept of including a base note.

Scent Elements: "Silk flower", plus some fruity-floral chemicals. At the time of its release, the Kenzo website claimed that the ingredients of its Eaux de Fleur were picked from real live trees, which is plausible only if these trees live in a laboratory.

[nyc-uws]

It’s time to rip up your lawn and replace it with something you won’t need to mow

A green yard without the grass.

By Jean Feingold | Published Jun 27, 2021

While meticulously manicured grass lawns are a staple of modern neighborhoods, these plots of green come with many downsides. Principal among them is the need for regular mowing, a chore that primarily serves to stave off your neighbors’ disapproval by conforming to a dated suburban ideal.

You’re tired. We’re tired. It’s time to consider an attractive, low-maintenance alternative by replacing your lawn with ground cover plants that don’t require any mowing at all. Once these plants take hold, they can be irrigated much less frequently than lawns—maybe once every six weeks if it hasn’t rained. Many are also resistant to pests.

“It’s a joy not to have to mow and still have everything look green,” says Wendy Wilber, the statewide Master Gardener Volunteer Program coordinator at the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. We agree—let’s get you started on your path to a better lower maintenance yard.

What to plant, based on where you live

Native plants are often your best choice for successful ground covers. If you have pets, you may also want to ensure your preferred plants don’t have seed heads that could attach to animals passing through. Here are some natives for planting in different geographic regions. The first three grow well in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, and Texas in full or partial sun.

Powderpuff mimosa, or sunshine mimosa (Mimosa strigillosa), is a fast-growing 3- to 4-inch-tall plant with purple powderpuff flowers. It grows in Arkansas and the southern states listed above.

Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) grows 3 to 6 inches tall and has white flowers. Its broad range stretches from the southern half of the US to the tropics, including Arizona, California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Utah.

Lyreleaf sage (Salvia lyrata) grows 1 to 2 feet tall with a rosette of leaves at its base. It has blue flowers and fragrant foliage like its culinary cousin. You can grow it in the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast.

While not a native plant, perennial peanut (Arachis glabrata) is a popular ground cover. Since it hit US soil in 1936, it has not spread into native areas or become a nuisance plant, IFAS says. It reaches about 6 inches tall and has yellow, buttercup-like flowers. A fan of warm temperatures, it grows in full or partial sun throughout Florida and in the southern parts of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas.

[Related: Build a garden for native pollinators]

The next three native plants are suitable for installations in shade or partial shade and cooler climates.

[whatnext10]

The Beautiful Powderpuff Vine Makes Great Ground Cover

The Beautiful Powderpuff Vine Makes Great Ground Cover discusses this interesting, sensitive plant. It is non-native to the US, but common as a decorative plant and ground cover as well as an escaped flower growing wild.

Tangled Right now the gorgeous pink mimosa trees are blooming all over the place, and they are quite a sight lining some of the roadways. Shortly after the trees begin blooming the ground starts popping up with fuzzy pink flowers, too. They look a lot like the mimosa flowers, and that’s because they are also a type of mimosa. Most people know them as the powderpuff or mimosa vine (Calliandra…

[gapplephotos]

My favorite time of year is when our Mimosa/Powder Puff trees bloom, and these are the first 2 blooms of the year 😊 #mimosa #mimosatree #powderpuff #powderpufftree #putdoorsoutside #backyard #nature #plants #plant #red #pink #flower #bloom #blosom #florida #nature https://www.instagram.com/p/CHNzRjVjOyj/?igshid=15w2wk1mvf029

[thegrandimago]

This is the 116th installment of 'Since I've Been Gone'. Taken on the same day as the last post during my time with @americanconservationexperience, this was another sunshine mimosa (Mimosa strigillosa), only you can see a fuller flower. They are always fun to see. #plants #plants #flower #flowers #wildflower #wildflowers #texasplants #texasplant #texasflowers #texasflower #texaswildflower #texaswildflowers #texasnativeplants #texasnature #nature #flora #plantae #angiosperms #vascularplant #tracheophyta #dicots #magnoliopsida #fabales #legumes #mimosa #mimosastrigillosa #sensitiveplant #sensitiveplants #sunshinemimosa #powderpuff (at Port Aransas, Texas) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWost6aKCPZ/?utm_medium=tumblr

[wildwoodcredits]

The Mimosa Strigillosa “Powderpuff” are in full bloom this week! Also called the Sunshine Mimosa these pink flowers are found across much of Texas because they’re fairly drought tolerant! Enjoy! #wildwoodcredits #wildflowers #texasflowers #restorationproject

[rachelsrandomsphotos]

Powderpuff Mimosa (Mimosa strigillosa)

Taken at The Yoga Garden in Melbourne, FL