…or also known as the Chinese Silk Tree or Silk Tree in the United States.
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On our regular morning walks Maggie and I follow a path which includes walking along the edge of the woods. Almost buried under larger trees and vines is a Mimosa (Albizia julibrissin) tree which is in beautiful bloom just now. I believe the more accurate name for it is the Persian silk tree or pink silk tree, a species of tree in the family Fabaceae, native to southwestern and eastern Asia.
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Julibrissin is widely planted as an ornamental plant in parks and gardens, grown for its fine leaf texture, flowers, and attractive horizontal canopy. Other positive attributes are a fast growth rate, low water requirements, and the ability to thrive planted in full sun in hot summer climates. It is very frequently planted in semi-arid areas like California’s Central Valley, Central Texas, and Oklahoma.
The sweet-scented flowers are a good nectar source for honeybees and butterflies. There is conflicting information on the toxicity of pods and seeds to humans and animals; some parts of the plant may contain a neurotoxin.
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In the wild, the tree tends to grow in dry plains, sandy valleys, and uplands. It has become an invasive species in the United States. It has spread from southern New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, west to Missouri and Illinois, and south to Florida and Texas.
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As you can see in the photo above this particular Mimosa Tree seems about to be crowded out by overgrowth and vines. There does seem to be a few much smaller Mimosa Trees nearby but none that are blooming. I made these photos with my iPhone XR and the only angle I could get with the blooms was into the sun…not a good combination. Invasive or not they are beautiful.
What an interesting plant! I’ve never seen one of these before (which really isn’t saying much – botany not a strong suit).
I’d say your phone handled the backlighting well also. Great photos, love the glow!
These trees are not very noticeable when not blooming, or at least I’ve seldom noticed them. At the moment this is the only one around here I’m aware of but I’m sure there are probably more. Thanks for your comment on the photos. They required some post-processing to lesson the “blown-out” of my phone’s small sensor by the sun but overall it did a better job than I originally thought it would. Phone cameras have certainly come a long way in quality and capabilities.
Indeed they have. Even the appearance of a photo on the screen is packing some “wow” factor. My wife recently got an iPhone 11 after dropping her old one – and she showed me some photos I took with my iPhone X on her phone. Quite a noticeable improvement in just a couple of upgrade cycles.
The beauty of the blooms sadly explains why someone brought it here. Sad it has become invasive. Your last photo tells the story of the ongoing struggle between the Mimosa and surrounding plants.
I kinda wish I’d waited to upgrade my phone for one of the iPhone 11’s with multiple lenses but my old one was a 6s so I was getting pretty desperate for a new one and the XR seemed a good compromise. :-)
Not sure that I’ve seen these before. They are pretty. But invasive as you say.
From research, they seem to like the warmer climates and as I told Mark above they are not very noticeable when not blooming. But when they are blooming they grab your attention!
I’ve never seen these before, either. The blossoms are beautiful. When I first saw the pictures I thought maybe they were from the new Sony. I was excited! Alas, it wasn’t so……
Maybe you guys all live too far north for the Mimosa Tree. It likes warmer climates. But give global warming a few years and I’m thinking your climate will probably be acceptable. :-(
Sorry to disappoint you on the photos, delivery is today…stand by! ;-)
Update on Mimosa Trees Post: Bonnie, has made the difficult effort to educate me on Mimosa Trees and I thought I’d share my new knowledge with those who took the time and effort to comment on this post.
Mimosa trees used to be very popular in the southern climates as an ornamental tree but it turns out they are disease-prone and tend to die rather easily in that setting. Now they are mostly found in the wild, usually along the edge of woods or a forest.
With them blooming and my being more aware of them, I’ve noticed quite a lot of them along road right-of-ways in the edge of woods around here.