Mimosa
The 'sensitive plant' does its thing, in this short film made at the Eden Project in Cornwall.
Jonathan Sanderson
Duration: 1:13
Views: 458
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MimosaYou don't need a good video camera to make a film for SciCast! This was filmed on my new mobile phone, the day after I got it. OK, so it's blurry (I didn't find the close-up mode until the following week), but it shows the sort of thing that can be done with a camera you carry around all day, every day.
This was filmed during a visit to the Eden Project in Cornwall, which is an amazing place. If you visit, see if you can find this mimosa, and take some better-quality film of it!
For anyone wondering, the phone is a Nokia N95. It crashes a lot, but the video it shoots is very good indeed. Look out for more stuff filmed with it soon. Notably, I've been hanging it off kites...
Mimosa pudica is a fascinating plant; read up on it at Wikipedia here. It's known as 'the sensitive plant,' or 'shyness grass' - when gently touched, its leaves fold up, as you can see in the film. There's another Wikipedia page about plant movement here.
What neither of those pages give is a description of the mechanism involved. If you know more, please explain in the comments here. Thanks!
You can order the seeds online from the Eden Project's website. You get the fun of growing them yourself too.
Elin, 14 Feb 2008
I want one of those plants Where can I buy one?
dza, 24 Sep 2007
Commenting on my own film, sorry: there's a lovely (and sharp!) film of this here. If anyone comes across another Mimosa, do try to capture better video of it doing its thing than I did!
Jonathan Sanderson, 27 Aug 2007
Aha, I knew my habit of reading labels would one day come in handy.
Elin, 24 Aug 2007