Mimosa Tree (Albizia julibrissin)

I took this picture this morning, 06/01/2011, while spending some time out at our pool. It was a beautiful morning, if yet still a little breezy. I’ve decided to start taking my camera with me whenever we go out to the pool in order to get in a little more practice in improving my picture taking skills. Today I concentrated on taking pictures of the various Mimosa trees that surround our pool area. These trees continue blooming for up to two months and we absolutely love them; however the pool maintenance people hate them. Their flowers are continually blowing off and dropping into the pool making keeping it ‘clean’ quite a chore.

DESCRIPTION: Albizia julibrissin, a species of legume in the genus Albizia, is known by a wide variety of common names, such as Persian silk tree, or pink siris, it is most commonly referred to as silk tree or mimosa in the United States. It is native to Iran and Central China. It has a single trunk with smooth gray bark. Up to 20 inches long, its green leaves are alternate, bipinnately compound with 10 to 25 pinnae, each with 40 to 60 leaflets.  Leaflets are oblong, very oblique, 1/4" to 1/2" long.  It has a fruit pod that is 5" to 7" long, 1" wide and light gray brown in color.

With its graceful, fern-like tropical-looking foliage coupled with its soft, feathery, scented flowers this tree provides a wonderful tropical feel. Some say it flowers have a nutmeg like smell. The Mimosa, which is attractive to honeybees, butterflies, and birds.  One of the most unique aspects of this tree is that each of its feather-like, multi-divided leaves actually goes to “sleep” at night, folding in and nodding toward the ground. In late winter or spring the broad, rounded crown is peppered with small, white-to-yellow flower heads made up of silky, feather threads, which are extraordinary. Loving long and dry summers, this vase-shaped, often multi-stemmed, broad-spreading small tree grows to about 30 feet with a broad, spreading crown. After flowering, they bear flat light brown pods about 5 inches long.

Some more pool shots. (above) View looking towards the pool from the outside spa. (below left) the area beneath one of the large Mimosa trees where we usually sit with our neighbors. (below right) A view looking towards the water lagoons and the Legacy golf course.