Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk (PIER)

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Mimosa tenuiflora
(Willd.) Poir., Fabaceae
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Present on Pacific Islands?  no

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  no

Risk assessment results:  High risk, score: 7 (Go to the risk assessment)

Other Latin names:  Acacia tenuiflora Willd.; Mimosa cabrera H. Karst.; Mimosa hostilis (Mart.) Benth.

Common name(s): [more details]

Spanish: tepescohuite

Habit:  tree

Description:  "Often vulnerantly prickly, microphyllidious arborescent shrubs and trees commonly 2-5 m with stiff knotty fuscous, livid or blackish branches erratically armed with stout subhorizontal cataneous or livid aculei 2-10 mm arising from a broad swollen pediment, the sometimes unarmed hornotinous branchlets and foliage puberulent and ± resinous or viscid with minute soft hairs 0.1-0.3 mm and mostly sessile or semi-immersed, but on some stems partly short-stipitate glands ±0.05-0.1 mm diameter, the plane firm leaflets subconcolorous, dull olivaceous often brunnescent when dry, facially either glabrous or finely puberulent, dorsally sprinkled with semi-immersed glands, often minutely ciliolate, the flower-spikes from axils of fully expanded or already fallen leaves, the inflorescence in consequence either immersed in foliage or on defoliate annotinous branchlets.  Stipules deltate, triangular or triangular-acuminate (0.5-) 1-2.5 mm, deciduous.  Leaf-stalks (2-) 2.5-6.5 (-9.5) cm, the petiole including livid pulvinus 7-14 mm, at middle 0.5-0.9 mm diameter, the longer interpinnal segments (3-) 4-9 (-11) mm, the ventral groove interrupted between pinnae by a spicule 0.3-1 mm; pinnae in Brazil 4-7-, n.-ward to 11-jug., decrescent proximally, the rachis of longer ones (2-) 2.5-5 (-5.5) cm, the longer interfoliolar segments 1-2.2 (-2.5) mm; leaflets of longer pinnae (15-) 17-33 (-40)-jug., decrescent only near ends or rachis, in outline linear-oblong obtuse or sometimes minutely apiculate, the longer ones (3.5-) 4-8 x 1-1.6 mm, 2.5-5 times as long as wide, faintly 1 (-2)-nerved dorsally, the upper face veinless.  Spikes solitary or sometimes geminate, subsessile, in young bud appearing as dense cylindric aments ±5-10 x 2-3 mm, the axis becoming 4-10 cm, loosely spicate; bracts cuneate-spatulate 0.6-1 mm, at dilated apex hooded and dorsally puberulent; flower-buds oblong-obovoid, minutely glandular-papillate distally; flowers 4-merous 8-androus, some often staminate; calyx turbinate-campanulate 0.75-1 mm, 4-angulate by prominent ribs leading to the very short, cucullately incurved, dorsally puberulent lobes; corolla turbinate 2.1-3.1 mm, whitish or greenish-white, the ovate, apically callous and incurved lobes 0.7-1.6 mm; filaments white, free, the longer ones exserted 3-4 mm; ovary gray-pilosulous laterally and glandular-verruculose overall.  Pods narrowly oblong or oblong-elliptic in profile, when well fertilized 25-50 x 6-8.5 mm, 4-6-seeded, the body cuneately contracted at base into a slender stipe 2-4 mm, the shallowly undulate replum 0.3-0.5 mm wide, the thin green valves becoming stramineous or brownish, bullately elevated over each seed, viscid with both sessile and short-stipitate glands, when ripe separating from replum and breaking up into articles ±6-8 mm long; seeds in broad profile obovate-subcordate ±4-4.5 x 3.3 mm, the testa dull brown."

"A syndrome of viscid foliage, strongly 4-ribbed calyx with incurved lobes, and a stipitate thin-walled pod charged with mixed sessile and stipitate glands, the valves bullately distended over the seeds, neatly defines this widespread species" (Barneby, 1991; pp. 135-136).

Habitat/ecology:  "An element of brush-woodland communities subject to periodic or seasonal drought, in Brazil mostly in caatina but entering cerrado and occasional on sandstone outcrops, in places forming weedy thickets in pastures and along highways, in northern South America in semideciduous forest and chaparral, mostly below 500 m but in Bahia attaining 750 (-900) m"  (Barneby, 1991; pp. 135-136).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  Mexico, Central America and northern South America (GRIN).

Presence:

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. &
Island group
Location Cited status &
Cited as invasive &
Cited as cultivated &
Cited as aboriginal introduction?
Reference &
Comments
Central America
Central America (Pacific rim)
El Salvador (Republic of) native
U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013)
Central America
Central America (Pacific rim)
Guatemala (Republic of) native
U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013)
Central America
Central America (Pacific rim)
Honduras (Republic of) native
U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013)
Central America
Central America (Pacific rim)
Nicaragua (Republic of) native
U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013)
Central America
Central America (Pacific rim)
Panama (Republic of) native
U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013)
Mexico
Mexico
Mexico (United Mexican States) native
U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013)
Chiapas, Oaxaca
South America (Pacific rim)
South America (Pacific rim)
Colombia native
U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013)
Guajira

Control:  If you know of control methods for Mimosa tenuiflora, please let us know.


Need more info? Have questions? Comments? Information to contribute? Contact PIER! (pier@hear.org)

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This page was created on 26 FEB 2008 and was last updated on 19 MAR 2008.