Nidikumba Mimosa pudica

 <i>Mimosa pudica</i>

Common name  -  Nidikumba

Botanical name -  Mimosa pudica

Family  -  Fabaceae

Life cycle  -  Annual

Morphology 

•    Diffuse undershrub, 50-90 cm high.
•    The stem and rachis are clothed with prickles
•    The leaves are bipinnate, pinnae 2-4, digitatively arranged, with 10-20 pairs of leaflets 
•    The flowers in pinkish globose heads
•    The flowers are pollinated by the wind and insects.
•    The pods, small, flat, straw-coloured, with many bristles, the seeds, 3-5.

Propagation 

•    In cultivation, this plant is most often grown as an indoor annual, but is also grown for ground cover
•    Propagation is generally by seed.

Agricultural usage/ importance 

•      The species can be a troublesome weed in tropical crops, particularly when fields are hand cultivated. Crops it tends to affect are corn, coconuts, tomatoes, cotton, coffee, bananas, soybeans, papaya, and sugar cane. Dry thickets may become a fire hazard. In some cases it has become a forage plant although the variety in Hawaii is reported to be toxic to livestock.

•     Mimosa pudica can form root nodules that are habitable by nitrogen fixing bacteria.The bacteria are able to convert atmospheric nitrogen, which plants cannot use, into a form that plants can use. 
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•     Grown as an ornamental, its touch-sensitive leaves create interest among adults and children alike, helping to inspire interest in plant life generally. It has many traditional medicinal uses.

Control method 

•    Herbicide: Dicamba, Triclopyr + picloram, Fluroxypyr
•   Do not disturb plants before spraying as leaves will fold up reducing surface exposed to the spray.