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Curated News

Plant of the Month: The Sensitive Plant | JSTOR Daily

Aw... It's The Sensitive Plant! Whenever you touch it, the leaves fold up like a fan along its stem.

At first glance, Mimosa pudica ("poo-DEE-cah") is a plant that most people would consider a weed. It grows close to the ground, with countless delicate leaflets, puffy pinkish balls of flowers, and small bunches of legumes. So it makes sense that Mimosa pudica would be known as the "Humble Plant," but what about its association with other names, like "Herb of Love" and "Sensitive Plant"?

When Linnaeus considered what separated living from non-living things he wrote,

"Stones grow; plants grow and live; animals grow, live, and feel."

With the Mimosa's apparent ability to feel, many people felt that the Sensitive Plant took on animal characteristics with its strong reaction to touch.

The Sensitive Plant fascinated 18th-century botanists, scientists, and poets who often compared the plant to animals because of the reaction of the plant; contracting after being touched.

In 1791, Erasmus Darwin wrote about the Sensitive Plant in a poem called The Botanic Garden.

"Weak with nice sense, this chaste Mimosa stands
From each rude touch withdraws her timid hands;
Oft as light clouds o’er-pass the Summer-glade,
And feels, alive through all her tender form,
The whisper’d murmurs of the gathering storm;
Shuts her sweet eye-lids to approaching night,
And hails with freshen’d charms the rising light."

Honey Plant Growth Stimulator - Using Honey To Root Cuttings

"Many people have found success with using honey to root cuttings.

It is, after all, a natural antiseptic and contains anti-fungal properties — allowing the little cuttings to remain healthy and strong.

Some people have even added honey to willow water to aid in rooting."

Botanical History On This Day

1515 Valerius Cordus, German physician-botanist whose groundbreaking herbal changed plant study forever and for whom the genus Cordia is named, was born.

1827 Antoine Nicolas Duchesne, French botanist and strawberry specialist who created the modern garden strawberry and studied gourds at Versailles, died.

1873 Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart, the French botanist hailed as the Father of Paleobotany and “Linnaeus of fossil plants,” died after transforming how we classify ancient flora.

1902 The Showy Lady's-Slipper became the State Flower of Minnesota, honoring the long-lived, elusive bog orchid once nearly collected to extinction.

Unearthed Words

February verses from Longfellow, Wordsworth, Will Rogers, and more, capturing frozen rivers, fickle hearts, and the last wintry days before spring. Read the February reflections

Grow That Garden Library™

Read The Daily Gardener review of Beth Chatto's Garden Notebook

Buy the book on Amazon: Beth Chatto's Garden Notebook

Today's Botanic Spark

A romantic little primer on February's birth flowers, the Violet and the Primrose—from Athens and Napoleon’s violets to primroses that say “I can’t live without you.”

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And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.