I am growing TickleMe Plants with my students. They love to tickle them and watch them move. Do they flower?

I ordered my seeds from TickleMePlant.com


The seeds had sprouted for the most part in less than a week as we kept their temperature above 75 degrees by placing them near the heater.


In less than a month they have become ticklish. Kids are shocked and excited when the plant moves after being tickled.


My kids are loving growing these amazing TickleMe plants from seed (Mimosa pudica) . They would like to hear from anyone who has successfully grown the TickleMe Plant. I have collected some information but any additional information from real successful growers would be very much appreciated.


I want each of my students to have a successful experience and the more information from people that have been successful growing the TickleMe Plant, the better. My kids will never forget this experience. Has anyone ever gotten them to flower and make seed. Wow- If we could grow TickleMe Plants from our own seed that would be awesome.


Please write us soon!


My class and I thank you in advance

I am growing TickleMe Plants with my students. They love to tickle them and watch them move. Do they flower?
Yes they do flower.





The Sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica L.) is a creeping annual or perennial herb often grown for its curiosity value: the compound leaves fold inward and droop when touched, re-opening within minutes.





Mimosa pudica is native to Brazil, but is now a pantropical weed.





Other names given to this curious plant are TickleMe Plant tm, Humble plant, Shame plant, Sleeping grass, Prayer Plant, Touch-me-not, Makahiya (Philippines, meaning "shy"), and Mori Vivi (West Indies).





The Chinese name for this plant translates to "shyness grass".





The species epithet, pudica, is Latin for "bashful" or "shrinking". Because of its curious nature and easy procreation. Its Sinhala name is Nidikumba, where 'nidi' means 'sleep'.





The seeds are currently marketed to children under the name TickleMe Plant tm.





The stem is erect in young plants, but becomes creeping or trailing with age.





The stem is slender, branching, and sparsely to densely prickly, growing to a length of 1.5 m (5 ft). The leaves are bipinnately compound, with one or two pinnae pairs, and 10-26 leaflets per pinna.





The petioles are also prickly. Pedunculate (stalked) pale pink or purple flower heads arise from the leaf axils. The globose to ovoid heads are 8-10 mm in diameter (excluding the stamens).





On close examination, it is seen that the floret petals are red in their upper part and the filaments are pink to lavender. The fruit consists of clusters of 2-8 pods from 1-2 cm long each, these prickly on the margins.





The pods break into 2-5 segments and contain pale brown seeds some 2.5 mm long.





Plant movement---








Mimosa pudica is well known for its rapid plant movement.





In the evening the leaflets will fold together and the whole leaf droops downward.





It then re-opens at sunrise.





This type of motion has been termed nyctinastic movement.





The leaves also close up under various other stimuli, such as touching, warming, or shaking.





The stimulus can also be transmitted to neighbouring leaves.





These types of movements have been termed seismonastic movements.





The cause is a loss of turgor pressure. The movement is caused by "a rapid loss of pressure in strategically situated cells that cause the leaves to droop right before one’s eyes".





Varities -








There are at least two distinct varieties of this plant.





The first is more hardy and is ornamented with small planar thorns along the stems and trunk.





The second is more temperamental, does not respond well to transplantation, and lacks thorns.





Both types exhibit the same motion, share the same leaf structure, and produce similar blooms.








1) Click on the link to see it before touch-


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mimos...





2) After touch-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mimos...





3) Flowers --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mimos...





4) more links - http://faculty.ucc.edu/biology-ombrello/...





5) More links - http://www-saps.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/recor...
Reply:I would have appreciated it more if it was chosen by the asker. Report Abuse

Reply:I have seen these growing in the wild in tropical north Queensland, Australia. I am not sure whether it is "mimosa pudica" which originally came from Brazil but it certainly is one of the mimosa type. They are called the "sensitive plant" here in Australia. This wikipedia article shows one with a typical mimosa type flower.





The plant will probably produce a little bean-like seed pod if the flower is fertilised. You may need several plants to guarantee this. Pollination is by insects, I would guess since the common Australian wattle trees which are in the mimosa family have roughly similar flowers (and leaves) are insect pollinated.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimosa_pudi...





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cootamundra...
Reply:I seen lots of those in the vacant lots here in RP. They flower beautiful purple ones with yellow dots on the ends. They are called Makahiya here.