Mimosa rubicaulis subsp. himalayana

Himalayan Mimosa is a large straggling deciduous shrub, branches ribbed, densely hairy; prickles present on nodes or inter nodes, straight or hooked, 4 mm or less long. Leaf double compound, axis 10-23 cm long, prickly, prickles mostly hooked, hairy, ribbed; pinnae 5-12 pairs, 2.5-6.5 cm long. Leaflets 6-15 pairs, 3-8 mm long, about 2 mm broad, oblong, blunt, with a short sharp point, hairless above, more or less hairy below, nearly stalkless. Inflorescence spherical penduculate head forming at branch-ends panicle; flower-cluster-stalk about 2.5-6.0 cm long, hairy, head about 1.2-1.5 cm across. Flowers pink fading to white, flower-stalklate, flower-stalk minute; bracteate, bract small, linear, fringed with hairs. Calyx about 1 mm, hairy. Flower about 3 mm long, tubular, 4 lobed, lobes about 1 mm long. Stamens 8, long, protruding. Ovary short stalked, hairless. Fruit 6-10 cm long, 1.0-1.3 cm broad, occasionally with prickles on the sutures, strap-shaped, hairless 4-10, 1 seeded joints, which get separated from the sutural frame. Himalayan Mimosa is found in the Afghanistan, Himalayas, from Kashmir to Bhutan, at altitudes of 300-1900 m. Flowering: June-August.