[Sca-cooks] Re: For the botanists

[Diamond Randall]

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>So I'm trying to find out what was growing in Poitou in 1154- the
>travelogues etc refer both to acacia and to mimosa- and I'm trying to
>figure out which is which. I know acacia can be tapped for gum, and I know
>that mimosa shrinks from touch. But which lives in Poitou? Either? Both?
>when someone mentions one, which do they mean? AAAAAAAAGAHHHHH

As mentioned before, acacia covers over 1000 species.  Being able to
pinpoint a specific to your desired location will be very like needles in
haystacks.  I think you are on an impossible quest unless you actually
visit Poitou long enough to compile an extensive study of what is
growing there NOW and working backwards by elimination.
As to mimosa, the silk tree is native to eastern Asia (China and Japan)
I recall.
While its leaves do fold up at dusk slowly, the silk tree does not shrink
from mere touch.  The native American species you are
thinking of as the species that "shrinks from touch" through hydrostatic
collapse  mechanisms is sensitive briar (Schrankia nuttallii), a
trailing ground vine native to the central and southern US.  Touch it
and the leaves instantly begin to close down along the whole vine.
It looks very much like a miniature silktree leaf and flower too.

--- Diamond Randall
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