Sensitive plant
Mimosa pudica L.
Sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica) is a low legume famous for its compound leaves that fold and droop when touched; it bears round pink powder-puff flowers and prickly flat pods, and is a pantropical weed native to South America.
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Gallery
Sensitive plant — Medicinal / ornamental (product)Sensitive plant — Plant
Sensitive plant — Leaves
Sensitive plant — Flowers
Sensitive plant — Prickly pods
Sensitive plant — Thorny stem & branchesSensitive plant — Medicinal / ornamental (product)Sensitive plant — PlantLife cycle
From seed to productPlant
A prickly creeping herb forming dense patches on open ground.
Leaves
Twice-pinnate leaves with many pairs of small leaflets.
Flowers
Round pink powder-puff flower heads.
Fruit
Flat prickly pods holding flat brown seeds.
Distribution & origin
Share of recorded occurrences by region- Tropical Central & South America (native)40%
- Southeast Asia & India (naturalised, incl. Vietnam)25%
- Africa & Madagascar12%
- Australia & Oceania10%
- Southern USA, Caribbean & Hawaii13%
Chemical composition
Relative content in agarwood resin- Water78%
- Fibre8%
- Mimosine & tannins5%
- Flavonoids (quercetin, kaempferol) & glycosides4%
- Saponins & alkaloids3%
- Essential oil & minerals2%
Uses
- Ornamental & curiosity: grown as a novelty plant; children love touching it to watch the leaves fold — hence names like 'shame plant' and 'touch-me-not'
- Folk medicine: root and leaf decoctions as a sedative for insomnia and anxiety; poultices for wounds, boils and snakebite; seeds for diarrhoea (India, Southeast Asia, China)
- Agriculture: ground cover against erosion, nitrogen-fixing green manure; partly used as fodder (limited by mimosine)
- Research & ecology: a model species for thigmonasty (touch-induced leaf movement); contains mimosine and antibacterial compounds under study
Properties
- Form
- Creeping-to-erect prickly herb
- Product
- Folk medicine (roots, leaves, seeds); ornamental plant
- Hallmark
- Leaves fold on touch; round pink powder-puff flowers
- Uses
- Sedative, insomnia remedy; antibacterial; ground cover
Habitat & conservation
Sensitive plant grows fast on moist, open, sunny ground; it is common along roadsides, field margins, waste ground, shifting cultivation plots and home gardens, tolerating poor soils. Native to tropical Central–South America, it is now naturalised throughout the tropics and subtropics: Southeast Asia (including Vietnam), India, Africa, Madagascar, Australia, Hawaii, the southern USA and the Caribbean.
Conservation
Not individually assessed by IUCN, but an extremely common pantropical invasive weed with no known threats, regarded as Least Concern (LC). Legume family (Fabaceae), genus Mimosa.
References
- 1Plants of the World Online — Mimosa pudica L. — Kew Science, 2026
- 2Mimosa pudica (Sensitive plant) — description, distribution, uses — Wikipedia tiếng Anh, 2026
- 3Trinh nữ (Mimosa pudica) — Wikipedia tiếng Việt — Wikipedia tiếng Việt, 2026
- 4含羞草 Mimosa pudica — 形态、分布与利用 — Wikipedia tiếng Trung, 2026
- 5Nguồn ảnh: Forest and Kim Starr (CC BY 3.0 US); Billjones94, Okkisafire, Nabunje Leticia (CC BY-SA 4.0) — Wikimedia Commons,
- 6Nguồn ảnh: Tony Hobbs (CC BY-SA 3.0); Manuspanicker (CC0) — hoa — Wikimedia Commons,