Last week I had to run into Lansing to pick up Quicksilver. Southern Belle had taken her to the dentist and then had other commitments for the rest of the day. I had agreed to collect QS and watch her the rest of the day.
While driving to the location of the "hand-off" I saw a mature Mimosa tree (Albizia julibrissin) in full bloom growing in a crowded neighborhood. The houses were built circa 1910-1920 and even in 1975 it was filled with "economically disadvantaged" people.
Lansing is WAY north of its usual range in North America. The last one I saw in Michigan was beside the train-tracks in Lake Odessa. The owner used to work on the railroad and brought the seedling home from the Illinois Ozarks.
What is notable about this species is that it is one of the few that might grow in Handsome Hombre's home country and grow in mid-Michigan.
Albizia are not native to North America. They were introduced and in some places are considered invasive and border-line, trailer-park trashy. The common Mimosa tree is not a good stick-of-timber but it has a couple of cousin, Albizia lebbeck and Albizia odoratissima that are.
I remember the mimosa just outside my grandmother's living room window, and the hummingbirds that flocked to it.
ReplyDeleteI see them here and there up here in KY... usually isolated specimens along the roadside and along the shores of nearby Lake Beshear. But... when I go south to visit family in AL, once I get south of the Tennessee River, mimosa is EVERYWHERE along the sides of the highways.
That is odd. I've never heard of one being that far north!
ReplyDeleteThey are very striking when in bloom. They cannot be mistaken for anything else.
DeleteThey grow like weeds here.. I'll see if I can't collect some seeds.
ReplyDeleteMy plan is to task Southern Belle with that. My thinking is that local seeds will have the best chance outside of the urban heat-bubble.
DeleteMimosa is a nitrogen fixing legume, the “wood” rots down easily for chop-and-drop soil amendment, and the flowers have an anti-depressant effect. They aren’t the most attractive species but they are useful enough to keep one or two around.
ReplyDeleteMany appear to think that if the land owner has to care for the plant, than it should offer more benefits (i.e. food - medicinal - building material) value to be planted on your property.
ReplyDeleteMimosa are a love / hate plant. The hummingbirds love them and nest in ours around our sinkhole. I don't think I'd want one close to the house.
ReplyDeleteWe have some around the golf course where I play and work, as well as here and there around the county. Beautiful flowers. Just yesterday I saw a line of several Mimosas covered with red flowers and one on the end that had striking purple flowers. They were planted about 10 or 12 feet apart.
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