In article <2jte13$545 at feta.csv.warwick.ac.uk>
lsrei at csv.warwick.ac.uk (Dr S T May) writes:
>The sensitive plant is one of the Mimosas..it is very easy to grow
>and it does close its leaves and drop its stem quite strikingly.
>In my hands, the response was better in younger plants and unfortunately
>the plants are also fairly sensitive to dehydration (I lost the
>lot one summer...too small a pot, too little attention :)
>The seeds are commercially available in all garden centres that I have
>been to...and come from various distributors..I think mine were
>'Mr fotheringills' .. apologies if that was mis-spelt .
>Hope this helps
>Sean
Further to the original question, Sensitive Plant will flower as a house plant
-rather attractive purple puff-balls (about 1 cm, clumps of purple stamens),
and set seed. But I echo Sean's experience: keep a good eye on the watering,
foliage is lost very readily on dehydration.
There has been much research on the mechanism of signal transmission and leaf
closure in Sensitive Plant, beginning with Charles Darwin (or even earlier?).
There is a chapter on Sensitive Plant in a recent book ("The Action Plant";
sorry can't remember author/editor offhand), that would make a good introductio
n.
Have fun! Frank van de Loo.
