Mimosa pudica L.

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French Guiana : Mimosa pudica is flowering and fruiting the year round because of continuous hot temperature and humidity.
Mayotte: Mimosa pudica flowers and fruits all year round.
New Caledonia: Seedling of Mimosa pudica is possible throughout the year when moisture conditions permits, but it usually occurs during the rainy season. The growth is rapid and the plant flowers in the year from the first heat of the dry season and the beginning of the warm period. A period of dormancy is often observed.

 Look alikes

Mimosa pudica is a weed of pastures, roadsides, coconut plantations, scrub; in fences on rivers banks; in sunny to rather heavily shaded, usually moist places; from 0-1000 m altitude.

Comoros: Mimosa pudica is a species present on roadsides and fallow.
French Guiana: Mimosa pudica is a characteristic species of degraded open habitats, particularly in grasslands, pastures, permanent vegetal cover in orchards, roadsides and agricultural plots. It is also very present along the dikes of the Mana rice polder.
Madagascar: A common weed in marshland of low and medium altitude, mainly in the alluvial plains and temporarily flooded marshland.
Mauritius: Species quite common on the island in vacant and uncultivated lots, the roadside. It is a weed of crops at all altitudes.
Mayotte: Mimosa pudica is an exotic species widely naturalized and very common in secondarized areas of hygrophilic and mesophilic regions, along streams, ditches, roadsides, villages, crops and pastures.
New Caledonia: This species introduced and sown as fodder in the late 19th century in New Caledonia by some breeders is now common mostly in damp places and appears along roadsides, in crops, gardens and in dry  forests .
Reunion: M. pudica grows on very diverse types of soils. We find this plant in humid areas of Reunion Island: it grows mostly on the east side and the south of the island.
Seychelles: M. pudica grows in all seasons and on all types of soil, mainly 0-300 m altitude.
West Indies: Mimosa pudica is an indigenous species. It is a good indicator of overgrazed grasslands. It is undemanding on soil type but is more common and abundant in low to medium elevation wetlands. Competition from other herbaceous species has relatively little effect on its growth and development. It is common on roadsides, fallow land, wasteland and cultivated areas.

Global harmfulness

Mimosa pudica is a troublesome weed in the cultivation of corn, tea and rice. It can become a real plague in pastures. It is considered a weed of concern for crops in South America, the Caribbean, parts of East Africa, Mauritius, Asia and many islands in the South Pacific.
 
Local harmfulness
 
Benin: Rare and scarce.
Burkina Faso: Frequent and scarce.
Comoros: Species infrequent but can be locally abundant.
Ghana: Rare and scarce.
French Guiana: Mimosa pudica is a very common weed in pastures, it is an excellent species indicative of degradation of the pasture. Having a high capacity of colonization, it can very quickly develop at the expense of the fodder species. It is considered one of the most problematic weeds of pastures. It is favored by long periods of regrowth between two grazing periods. These long periods allow M. pudica to become lignified and makes subsequent consumption by livestock impossible and its trampling ineffective. It is also favored by large fluctuations in livestock load. Periods of heavy load tend to degrade the vegetation too much, favoring germination and weed development, while long low-load periods allow weeds such as M. pudica to become lignified, thus leaving them unpalatable. It is also a major species of fruit crops with permanent vehetation cover. It is present in nearly 50% of orchard fields, with an average abundance index greater than 3.
Madagascar: Mimosa pudica is a weed of relatively low frequency but can be locally abundant and makes (and expensive) soil preparation work (due to the weakness of the equipment of the farmers) and even access to fields culture after the rainy season, difficult.
Mauritius: occasional weed in crops with low harmfulness.
Mayotte: Mimosa pudica is a very common weed, present in 52% of cultivated plots, and abundant in fruit, forage and ylang-ylang plantations. It is particularly abundant in the north of the island.
Nigeria: Rare and scarce.
New Caledonia: At the moment it is mainly a weed of crops. It is often found in pastures where it is sometimes considered as extra forage. But it remains poorly productive, while taking the place of other forage species.
Uganda: Frequent and usually abundant.
Reunion: Present in 15% of the plots, it is quite common in the sugar cane fields, but it most often develops in the form of small scattered spots or along parcel, except in some humid  areas where it can have a dominant character. In this case, besides the danger it poses to the cane because of its competition, it hinders the maintenance work of plots by its very aggressive thorns.
Seychelles: common weed of cultivated areas, including tea plantations, market gardening, tubers and ornamental crops.
Senegal: Rare and scarce.
West Indies: Mimosa pudica is a very common weed species in crops. While it is not a major problem in sugarcane and banana crops, it tends to develop in dense patches in fruit and vegetable crops. It is particularly abundant and troublesome in overgrazed grasslands. It hinders the maintenance of plots and its management requires costly specific weeding when it is abundant.

Global control

Herbarium pictures ReCOLNAT: https://explore.recolnat.org/search/botanique/simplequery=Mimosa%2520pudica