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Mimosa Hostilis Tenuiflora Jurema Seeds
Packet of 20+ freshly harvested home grown seeds!
This very fast growing thorny tree is often known as Mimosa hostilis, but that name has changed and it is now called Mimosa tenuiflora instead.
It has also been known as Acacia jurema, Mimosa apodocarpa var hostilis, Mimosa cabrera, Mimosa limana, Mimosa nigra, Acacia tenuiflora, Mimosa cabrera, Mimosa limana, jurema preta, calumbi, carbonal, cabrera, carbon colorado, jurema, black jurema, binho de jurema, and it often gets pushed and promoted by celebrities and beauty guru’s under the name Tepezcohuite.
It is used as a medicinal species, an ingredient in make-up, a fodder crop, a dye plant, bee forage, as a pioneer species, and as a general soil improver. This is because it drops a huge amount of very fine leaf matter that builds up as mulch improving poor rocky soils like mine. The difference to the soils texture and water holding ability is pretty amazing.
Being the aggressive thorny spiky bastard that it is if you do plan on growing this species make sure you grow it in pots or give it a haircut at least once a year so it doesn’t get out of hand.
That said it is not the much smaller prolific pink flowered Mimosa pudica, it is not the much harder to manage prohibited pest species Mimosa pigra, and it is not any of the other 500+ completely different species of Mimosa either.
The very high tannin content of this fella means it is often used for tanning and staining timber as well as various medicinal uses including mouth infection and toothache.
It handles drought without any issues all the while fixing nitrogen which is a big bonus, and the rose like thorns means it is one of the very few plants that doesn’t immediately get smashed by the roos and critters when the feed dies off. They do eat it, they just generally wait until they have eaten all my other cool stuff first.
Beautiful prolific flowers that the native bees love, and the long straight 3-5metre long broom handle thick branches are super easy to clean up. Just wack on a pair of garden gloves and run your hand down the stem and all the thorns just pop off. Give it a couple thumps on the ground or with the back of your saw and the bark gets nice and loose and you can just peel it away leaving the beautiful pale timber behind. These long straight poles are the ideal building material for chicken roosts, bean trellis and tomato stakes.
Being so high in tannin(~16%?) they don’t seem to get eaten by termites and critters which is very handy, especially here in Queensland Australia. Tea made from the plant is used extensively for healing wounds, tropical ulcers, and preventing parasites on stock.
It is also pretty famous for its shamanic use by the Jurema Cult and its interesting natural chemical composition.
If you said to me “What’s a fast growing nitrogen fixing plant that handles drought and doesn’t get smashed by the critters in the dry” then this fella would definitely be on the list.
It is easy to grow but Hot Water Treatment is needed to break dormancy if you are in a hurry. Without this germination can take a while as the seeds are designed to sit dormant and germinate mostly after fire when the other competition has been wiped out and they have clear access to the sun.
Same thing a lot of our native Acacia species do.
