Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_mimosa_pudica
Sensitive Plant
Mimosa pudica
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About Sensitive Plant
A creeping to sprawling prickly subshrub with bipinnate leaves that close when touched. Each leaf has one or two pairs of pinnae carrying many small narrow leaflets. Rounded flower heads look pink to lavender because of their long staminal filaments. Brown flattened pods have bristly margins and break into several one-seeded segments. Established wild occurrence warrants observations of occupied cover, reproductive plants and new recruits. These measurements can test persistence and spread. The reviewed accounts do not quantify an island-wide effect on Kauaʻi native vegetation.
Kauaʻi evidence
Generated media is not occurrence evidence. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Mimosa pudica
- Common names
- sensitive plant · sleeping grass
- Hawaiian names
- pua hilahila · hilahila
- Other names
- Mimosa pudica · sensitive plant · sleeping grass · pua hilahila · hilahila
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Introduced
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-07
- Evidence limits
- Island-level public occurrence only.
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Not yet assessed
- Food and resource needs
- Not yet assessed
- Reproduction
- Not yet assessed
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- Shrub or subshrub; Creeping annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs; stems 3-15 dm long, sparsely to densely prickly and sparsely hispid to glabrate.
Threats and conservation
- Monitoring
- Occupied area and vegetation cover; Mature plants and new recruits; Reproductive plants and fruiting frequency. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
- Data gaps
- Current island extent and population trend · Measured local ecological effects
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Not yet assessed
- Seasonal description
- A creeping to sprawling prickly subshrub with bipinnate leaves that close when touched. Each leaf has one or two pairs of pinnae carrying many small narrow leaflets. Rounded flower heads look pink to lavender because of their long staminal filaments. Brown flattened pods have bristly margins and break into several one-seeded segments. Established wild occurrence warrants observations of occupied cover, reproductive plants and new recruits. These measurements can test persistence and spread. The reviewed accounts do not quantify an island-wide effect on Kauaʻi native vegetation.