In my grammy ’s backyard lived a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree that I swore , grow up , was straight out of a Dr. Seuss account . The leaves opened and closed mysteriously and in the summer there were large , flossy tufts of garden pink perch at the end of the tree ’s uplifted branches . It was the most otherworldly plant I had ever encounter .
Because it was so exotic , I had always assume this was a tropical tree that my grandma had someone grapple to blarney into growing against all betting odds . She did , after all , also have a cactus grow in her Midwestern front yard . As I moved into college I shape a sound judgement that I would rather grow native plants and I maltreat farther by from her freakish horticulture knowledge .
Then just last class , while at an herbal group discussion , I was reintroduced to this plant of my childhood . Turns out that while not aboriginal , the mimosa tree ( Albizia julibrissin ) grows quite happily here in Ohio . Like several other Asian indigen , it has a farsighted history of use in Traditional Chinese Medicine , and it ’s habit is uprise in westerly herbalism . As I thoughtfully chewed a piece of the peeled bark I regain out why .
The barque and flowers are used , but it is the bark that is getting the attention here and now . It is mildly ataraxic . Chewing it can reduce your anxiousness grade and leave you sit under a tree in the specter , mount eloquent about the shapes you see in the cloud drift by . I can best describe it as bring home the bacon you the power to “ chill . ”
This plant in the noggin ( Fabaceae ) kin holds a deeper fascination for me as a phytologist . I am disproportionately attracted to plants that move . They make me giggle and I have to know how they do what they do . The silver wattle Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree does a couple cool thing . First , it breathe chemical into the surround soil that limits the growth of its neighbor . On the top it also , like it ’s other mob coition , tends to fix nitrogen . This is beneficial to keep in brain when placing it in a garden . It does not play well with others , so you wo n’t need to seek a radical of understory flora . It will need to be a specimen Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . Perhaps it ’s a bit of an exhibitionist and does n’t want any attention take from it ’s marvelous pinko , plumage - flowers .
The compound leaves of the mimosa collapse when it rain and when it is time to go to layer . The leaflets give in a miniature imitation of a bowl of fans doing the undulation . Why would a industrial plant call for to evolve a chemical mechanism to do this ? In fact , in some instances , the leave-taking answer to touch as well . It is thought that this is an adaptation to protect the plant life against overzealous browse by an herbivore . If you were a hungry deer , you ’d definitely be encouraged to move along if the plant shrank off from you in such an obvious fashion . The leaves close up to resemble a thorn - same shape , so I think they seem less appetizing , as well .
The mechanism fall out as a result of the plant ’s moving K around in its tissues , causing water supply to quickly leave the jail cell wall of its leave . turgidness is the style in which a plant keeps the inflexibility necessary to stand upright and hold its shape . The farewell cave in is but a loss of turgidity . What is fascinating about all of this is that the flora seems to be able to sense when it is safe to reelect the water to its cells . After you have endorse away , the leaves will re - animate and repay to their original nation . Perhaps the whole business is an adaption created to preserve piss content . If I consume a large number of leaves the flora would lose water . If the leaves stayed open at night , the plant might lose here as well due to transpiration . The tree diagram is well adapted to living in very wry , sandlike conditions , so I think my theory might be correct .
I am engraft a mimosa tree this yr in a new sitting surface area we are develop off my classroom . I will remember my grammy and her attraction to the bizarre in the landscape painting . The bark and flowers will , I ’m sure , make their way into many of my tea leaf and it will be nice to have a works that can encourage me to calm down down enough to once again notice the shapes in the clouds .
