Mimosa grahamii
Graham’s Mimosa
Family: Fabaceae
Deciduous shrub growing 2-3’ tall and about 4’ wide with catclaw like thorns. Cream to pink flowers in warm weather.
Full to part sun, moderate water, hardy to 10°F.
Nectar-rich flowers attract butterflies and other nectar-seeking insects. Moth larval food plant for the cecrops eyed silkmoth (Automeris cecrops), geometer moths (family Geometridae), the mystifying black witch moth (Ascalapha odorata), the bizarre mesquite clearwing moth (Carmenta prosopis), various bagworm moths (family Psychidae). Butterfly larval food plant for the reakirt’s blue (Echinargus isola) and the mimosa yellow sulfur (Pyrisitia nise). The seeds are eaten by quail and the plant acts as a protective habitat for birds like quail and other animals.
Mimosa grahamii on iNaturalist
Image by Stephen Minter, SEINET
The genus name Mimosa is from modern Latin, apparently from Latin mimus ‘mime’—because famous members of this genus have leaves that respond to touch with movement, seemingly mimicing the sensitivity of an animal. The species epithet grahamii (gra'hamii:) is name in honor of James Duncan Graham (1799-1865), a West Point Graduate and U.S. Army Officer, also the namesake of Mount Graham. There are 628 species native to the Americas, from North Dakota to northern Argentina, and to eastern Africa as well as the Indian subcontinent and Indochina.
Scattered on dry, shrub-covered slopes from 4,000-6,000 ft. in Arizona, New Mexico, and Sonora with a few disjunct populations in Chihuahua and Nayarit.