Mimosa

This is one for you mimosa experts out there.

I have this plant what I believe to be mimosa. I already have an Albizia julibrissin and a Acacia dealbata but it is not like them as it appears very hardy and evergreen.





(shoots I pulled out and potted up)

It hitched a ride on the tree fern I bought last
year and is completely dependent on the TF's husk for water etc. The biggest ones are fully rooted up and down the TF trunk. The TF is a tasmanian one which means that it is believed more cold tollerate. I have rooted a couple of shoots and it is doing really well, so if you recognise it let me know what you think. Bit of a find if its a fully hardy evergreen mimosa. It wasn't bothered by frost at all and considering its small size.

 

Yep, I thought it looked a lot like my Albizia julibrissin . But I couldn't get over the hardiness. My Albizia julibrissin gets throught the winter with little or no frost damaged as a deciduous tree, but this stays green as green can be? TF was not wrapped it such a way that would of protected them as I only do the crown of the TF not the trunk.

This is my well established AJ today...



Compared with this of the seedling!!!



Bizarre!!!

 

Albizias can be very confusing and frustrating as they find it hard to really get going in to a mature tree in our cool summers. I was given a "Julibrissin" by a friend but as it is in flower now it definitely is not as the flowers are small, white and round ( will post pic tomorrow). I have two 7ft high pot specimens in the polytunnel which have flower buds for the first time in five years and one in a pot outside also showing bud.
I saw some really massive trees in the States last year in NY and Pennsylvania where the summers are perfect for growing to maturity and being covered in flowers. Yours do look like Julibrissin ( Rosea?) as mine did but untill they flower it is hard to tell exactly what they are!

 

I think its an Acacia, it might well change leaf shape this year which will confim it.
The fact that its caught up with a tree fern also suggests acacia.

This is acacia melanoxylon, I'm not saying thats what it is, but it comes from the cooler parts of Oz and grows into a large tree, its hardy with me.
You can see the leaf change from juvenile to adult.

 

I am going to pot it on again and grow it into whatever it might become. Well pleased with my freebie interlopers and I will report back when it matures. :D

 

This is the Albizia I was given 18 months ago .
It's not Julibrissin or Lophantha as the flowers are obviously round, I have googled and found Acacia Sieberiana which is similar but the leaves look slightly different. Any ideas?

 

I think we've been here before strongy, these acacias and albizias all seem very similar, especially when young, it looks a bit like that one I was trying to ID a while ago at Kew.
At least you've got some flowers to help ID.
Dont most acacia flowers form clumps of spherical flowers, those are single spheres, could that make it an albizia?

 

I was going to say I didn't think it was Acacia because of the single flower but a couple of pics on google looked like a few had single flowers so I am not sure. At least I have something different to what I was expecting and I do have a couple of Julibrissin in bud as well. It's what keeps our interest going!

 

Oh yes, nice to get flowers, even though the leaves themselves are interesting. :D

 

Pete I am not worthy. Looks like it might be an acacia melanoxylon, you should be feeling very pleased with yourself for such a shrewd identification.











BM

 

Thanks BM, but beware, I think that confirms its an Acacia but as to wether its Melanloxylon or not I wouldn't like to say, it does however look very similar.

 

It's a mistake to generalise, but it seems that most of the Dicksonias arriving here as trunks come from regions where A. melanoxylon is very common. Almost all of the 'passenger' Acacias from Dicksonias that I've seen in recent years have turned out to be that species.

If you get some ferns springing up from spores germinating on the trunks, they can be great fun. I've had Histiopteris incisa, Hypolepis glandulifera, Microsorum diversifolium and Pellea falcata in the past. Some new 'scales' are developing on the lower sections of the most recently planted one. Here's hoping for something new.

 

Cool, I like plant freebies, would like some of the ferns you listed to appear.