Anyone every heard of a Tropical Mimosa Pudica?

Has anyone ever heard of a Tropical Mimosa Pudica, or better yet, ever grown one? I just ordered the seeds for it tonight, thinking how cool it would be (and, yes, anticipating watching my kids jump a foot off the floor when they touch the leaves and they move on their own LOL! Im bad haha!) to have one of these in the house! I ordered it off of Amazon.com, but, honestly, not entirely sure how to grow this. I'm sure the seed packet will explain much of it, but, can anyone give me some pointers on how to care for it, etc? Thought Id ask here, but will still do some googling around to see what I can find too lol.

The picture below is the picture of the Tropical Mimosa Pudica I found on Amazon. So excited to get this in a few days!!!

I've never grown it but it's a pretty little plant. It can be an invasive weed in some areas. Here are links with information for M. pudica, commonly called "Sensitive Plant":

http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week147.shtml

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2573/

http://www.hear.org/starr/images/species/?q=mimosa+pudica&o=plants

Common bonsai material.

Al

Mimosa pudica is an aggressive invasive trailing / climbing weed in Hawai'i.

Removing it from the garden is a miserable task. Having to walk through a patch of it in the wild, leaves one bleeding.

Hm, well, I'll have to watch then. It will be an indoor plant regardless, so I shouldnt have to worry about it becoming too invasively trailing. I guess if it gets to be a problem, atleast its in a pot and I cant pitch it! LOL! Thanks guys!!

Hey!
I have grown a few of them and absolutely love them. The number one rule, PRUNE PRUNE PRUNE! The best way to keep this plant as a fun houseplant is to allow it to grow the about ten inches tall, then remove the apical meristem. This will inhibit lateral growth (branching). The branches are the fun part. I have found that the more I prune mine, the bushier it becomes and more beautiful (and fun). They are very simple plants to take care of, give them plenty of indirect sunlight, and don't let the plant completely dry out between watering! Let us know how it goes!

ive only grown a regular mimosa. the tropical pudica looks awesome though!

They are fun plants but beware, they have thorns on their stems!

Thanks for the input everyone!!! I tried growing some last spring, but they never made it past a sproutling stage... not entirely sure why, but assuming that a lot of it had to do with the fact that there are 3 smokers in the house? Could the smoke in the house have killed them? I have a few seeds left over still from my last purchase, that I was going to give to a long distance friend, but she hasnt sent me her mailing address yet, and I'd rather not wait too terribly long (as to be honest, im new to gardening and I dont really know how long you can keep seeds before they just go ka-put lol!)

Any suggestions on this? Could it have been due to the smoke in the house? Thanks!

The smoke certainly wouldn't help them, but I would also consider possibilities like overwatering. Damping off is a VERY common thing that can happen to baby seedlings--it's a fungal disease caused by being kept too wet, what you'll notice is that the base of the stem looks pinched in and the seedling will decline and die. So if you want to try again I'd back off on your watering and see if that helps.

Most seeds can keep for a while as long as you keep them in cool dry conditions. Some tropicals need to be sown when fresh, but most seeds will be fine. Germination rate will decline over time so you might get a few less seedlings sprouting than last year but I suspect some will still come up.

Thanks! Yeah, I could very well have overwatered them too. In my mindset, since its a tropical plant, it would want/need a lot of water... atleast enough for the soil to remain wet/damp all the time and not dry out.

I bet they got a bit too much water--if you try again, let things dry out more in between watering and see if that helps. They're not desert plants so they do need regular water, but they don't want permanent wet feet either.

This weed grows in dry conditions and it is indeed a weed. If it came from a supplier in Hawaii the seeds may have been subjected to X-Ray, not a good thing.

I don't recall where the supplier was from. I bought them on Amazon.com early last spring.

If x-rays were going to cause a problem I think they would have damaged the seeds so they wouldn't germinate. Since they sprouted I don't think x-rays contributed to the seedlings dying, too much water is a much more likely culprit.