Mimosa pudica L.
Action Plant, Almindelig mimose, Balabalamatso, Chibalamatso, M'zungutsuo, M'zungu, Dikáglë
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Mimosa pudica is a creeping annual or perennial flowering plant of the pea/legume family Fabaceae. It is often grown for its curiosity value: the sensitive compound leaves quickly fold inward and droop when touched or shaken and re-open a few minutes later. For this reason, this species is commonly cited as an example of rapid plant movement. Like a number of other plant species, it undergoes changes in leaf orientation termed "sleep" or nyctinastic movement. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Mimosa pudica”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Mimosa
Mimosa is a genus of about 600 species of herbs and shrubs, in the mimosoid clade of the legume family Fabaceae. Species are native to the Americas, from North Dakota to northern Argentina, and to eastern Africa as well as the Indian subcontinent and Indochina. The generic name is derived from the Greek word μῖμος (mimos), 'actor' or 'mime', and the feminine suffix -osa, 'resembling', suggesting its 'sensitive leaves' which seem to 'mimic conscious life'.
Text from Wikipedia, “Mimosa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Eburnax pudica (L.) Raf.; Mimosa pudica f. hispidior Benth.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December at the habitat (not shifted)).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1445 mm of 1888 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 1.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 1888 mm a year, wettest June at 208 mm, driest February at 94 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1888 mm a year at the habitat, 1445 mm of it May to December. Wettest month June at 208 mm, driest February at 94 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1227 mm to 3647 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 35 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor 19.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 19.2 °C, the absolute minimum 15.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 21.7 °C in November (across the envelope cells 16.3 °C to 24.5 °C), warmest day 28.2 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 27 / 24–31 | 28 / 24–31 | 28 / 25–31 | 28 / 25–31 | 28 / 23–31 | 28 / 22–30 | 28 / 22–30 | 28 / 23–31 | 28 / 24–31 | 28 / 24–31 | 27 / 24–30 | 27 / 23–30 |
| Night °C | 22 / 16–24 | 22 / 16–24 | 22 / 17–24 | 22 / 17–25 | 23 / 16–25 | 22 / 15–25 | 22 / 14–25 | 22 / 14–25 | 22 / 16–25 | 22 / 17–25 | 22 / 16–25 | 22 / 16–24 |
| Rain mm | 104 / 23–333 | 94 / 25–283 | 115 / 28–304 | 130 / 43–389 | 182 / 69–474 | 208 / 52–424 | 193 / 44–413 | 180 / 38–412 | 198 / 55–435 | 183 / 60–417 | 157 / 46–343 | 144 / 33–337 |
| DLI | 32 / 25–38 | 34 / 29–39 | 35 / 30–41 | 35 / 27–42 | 30 / 24–42 | 30 / 22–41 | 32 / 23–41 | 35 / 26–40 | 34 / 27–39 | 33 / 27–39 | 31 / 25–38 | 30 / 24–37 |
| RH % | 64 / 59–69 | 64 / 58–69 | 64 / 58–69 | 65 / 59–70 | 66 / 60–71 | 66 / 62–72 | 66 / 60–72 | 65 / 59–72 | 65 / 60–72 | 66 / 61–72 | 65 / 61–71 | 65 / 60–70 |
Each figure is the median across the 496 grid cells holding the 575 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1639:2150 (8.025, -72.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 15.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 496 distinct grid cells holding the 575 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1639:2150 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 8.00_-72.500, lapse-corrected -286 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 455 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Daniel Cahen, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Chris Parminter, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).
Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Mimosa pudica, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Peperomia pellucida Clearweed
Capsicum frutescens African Chilli
Heliconia bihai Lobster Claw Heliconia
Annona muricata Brazilian pawpaw
Dieffenbachia seguine Dumb Cane
Monstera adansonii Adanson's MonsteraOther Mimosa 1 in the reference
History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 190 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








