Robin: In Australia there is a plant that when you touch it, it shuts. In Amherst, there is a greenhouse that has some of those and they work really hard to keep it alive. Once Mommy bought one of these plants, but it died. But here this plant grows like a weed by the road and in the grass!
Michele: The plant is Mimosa Pudica or Sensitive plant. Here is a video of the leaves closing up as Robin touches them. This clip is 2.4 MB... you should see the full resolution version. It is awesome! But it is also 53 MB....
WOW! It was wonderful to see Robin touching the plant and hear her narrative. "Ain't "technology grand!
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hi!
ReplyDeletei was at the smith college greenhouse today with my sister-- and i thought about you with the 'sensitive" "weeds" .. at the time i was there,i knew i wanted to see it.. but i was not exactly sure what the name of the plant was.. the person working there showed me several 'flytrappers' i saw the 'sensitive' plant.. and it was not from australia, but from costa rica( i think) .. well when i checked your blog to get the exact name, i was glad i was looking at the SAME thing you are seeing there!.. it was fun touching the leaves.. although i wasnt SUPPOSED to! shh shh.. but i only did just a few leaves... so cute and pretty!..
LOL. The mimosa is from South America originally but now grows all over the tropics. It is fun to touch them here. Because they grow all over we don't worry about stressing the plant.
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