Mimosa diplotricha Sauvalle

Code

Growth form

Biological cycle

Habitat

Mimosa diplotricha is a plant that can grow and produce fruit throughout the year.

Mayotte: Mimosa diplotricha flowers from April to June and fruits from June to July.
New Caledonia: Seed dormancy of Mimosa diplotricha is long (may exceed 50 years). They germinate rather at the beginning of the rainy season, the growth is fast, young seedlings can produce flowers and seeds in a few weeks. The dominant flowering period is in the dry season followed by fruiting in November-December.

Mimosa diplotricha is a biennial to perennial shrub that reproduces by its seeds in pods floating on the water and clinging to the clothing or coat of animals. These seeds are also often present in seed lots. A seed bank of about 1 million seeds per ha has been observed.

 Look alikes

Comoros: Mimosa diplotricha is a ruderal plant, found along roads in humid , clay or rocky sites, preferably in lighted areas. It occurs up to 600 m in altitudes in the three islands, particularly in the western part of Grande Comore.
Madagascar: A recently introduced species, extended in the Middle West. It invades dry crops in the valleys and on the plateau, the edge of the canals and the banks of rivers.
Mauritius: Species very rare on the island.
Mayotte: M. diplotricha is a widely naturalized exotic species and common in secondarized environments of hygrophilous and mesophilous regions such as edges, layons, stream banks, crops and pastures. It occurs occasionally in the xerophilous region in cuttings and quarries.
New Caledonia: It grows in many types of soils. It can not stand waterlogging of the soil even temporarily or significant shading.
Reunion: M. diplotricha is a ruderal plant found along the highways and hedges or gullies or headland. It prefers bright areas and low shade and tolerates poor or wet clay soils. It is present locally in the north of the island.
Seychelles: Absent.

Global harmfulness

Mimosa diplotricha is one of 300 major invasive species in tropical Australia, the Indian Ocean and Oceania including New Caledonia. It promotes the passage of fire when it dies and dries out.
 
Local harmfulness
 
Comoros: Mimosa diplotricha is a very common weed in young plantations of cassava, banana and abandoned crops. It is a species that grows very quickly and makes removal difficult because of its sharp hooks.
Madagascar: A weed which is still of low to medium frequency but always abundant and very harmful for all rainfed crops. The infestation of this species also hinders access to fields and increases costs of maintenance of irrigation canals. .
Mauritius: This species is not present in crops.
Mayotte: Mimosa diplotricha is a fairly frequent weed (10% of cultivated plots). It is particularly present in fruit and vegetable crops.
New Caledonia: Introduced as a forage in 1944. It grows in many soil types. The bushy weed is very aggressive, rarely consumed by cattle, and is able to quickly invade large grazing areas, forming dense thickets.
Reunion: The presence of rhizobium can have a positive effect on culture (fixation of nitrogen from the air and return nitrogen to the ground for cultivation), but its aggressiveness its spines and its ability to invade quickly, makes it a potential dangerous weed for orchards and sugar cane fields. This weed is still very rare in cultivation, but relatively common and locally abundant in sugar cane fields in the northeast of the island of Sainte-Marie and Saint-Benoit.
Seychelles: Absent.
South Africa: Mimosa diplotricha causes crop and pasture production losses because it smothers crops, grassland and sugar cane.

Global management

Herbarium pictures ReCOLNAT: https://explore.recolnat.org/search/botanique/simplequery=Mimosa%2520diplotricha