Sleepy Grass

[SolarCell]

I have always loved Sleepy Grass. This is what my family has always called the plant. It has the leaves that close up if anything touches them. I have fun memories as a child of playing with this plant with my parents. They would tell me about how it would go to sleep if I touched it. I also like the plant because it gets purple/pink round flowers. Most people probably see this plant as a weed that looks bad on their lawn but I have always liked it. Do you know what plant I am referring to?

 

[claudine]

So far, I've heard only of one plant that closes up its leaves when you touch them. I was told that it's called Mimosa, but it's possible that it has more than one name.

It looks like this:

Is it your 'Sleeping Grass'?

 

[gata montes]

SolarCell - shame you didn't post a picture of your ' sleepy grass ' so that we could see it, but agree with Claudine that your description does sound very much like that of the Mimosa in the picture, and if it is, had thought that was it was known as 'the tickle me plant' which has recently become incredibly popular, especially with the kids, as apparently every time you touch the leaves of this plant - it moves just as though it was being tickled

 

[Pat]

Both these names are new to me. The tickle me plant

isn't this neat?

 

[gata montes]

Pat - what a really great picture you managed to get of this plant and thank you posting it - just goes to show how amazing nature can be, think they're fantastic plants
Think its more than just the children, that would get a great deal of pleasure from owning a plant like this, I know I would love to have one - but would probably exhaust it - with the amount of times that I wanted to keep touching it
As I said earlier The 'tickle me plant' has become extremely popular with kids, not only because of how it moves but its also a great way of introducing them gardening.

 

[SolarCell]

Yeah. That is the plant. Thanks for posting the pictures for me.

Sorry I didn't post a picture of it but I couldn't find any pictures of it on my camera and then I couldn't find any of it in my lawn to take a new picture of. It seems to only come up periodically.

 

[gata montes]

SolarCell - if I had this plant growing in my lawn, I think I would have dug up so many by now, that I would have a very thick and dense ' tickle me ' forest - especially as they are so easily propagated

I'm curious though, as to why your plants keep disappearing and reappearing, as I had thought that this particular Mimosa was evergreen, or maybe its something to do with the fact that its growing in your lawn and therefore - keeps getting run over by the lawn mower

 

[claudine]

SolarCell, I'm glad we could help
Pat, this little video is so adorable! All people who don't care for plants and treat them like they aren't alive should watch it. This plant closes up it's leaves really quickly, I find it very cute