Mimosa pigra is a woody, prickly shrub native to tropical America that is widely known today as one of the world’s most aggressive invasive plants, despite its limited traditional medicinal uses.
The giant sensitive plant or catclaw mimosa (Mimosa pigra, family Fabaceae) is a stout, stiff, prickly shrub with densely branched stems 1 to 6 metres long, usually upright but sometimes sprawling. It occurs in South and Central America, the Caribbean and tropical Africa. Its favourite habitat is moist, open ground around water and on floodplains, where it can form stands of a single species with almost nothing growing beneath it.
It grows in the lowland tropics where there is a distinct dry season, from near sea level to 700 metres and occasionally 1,000 metres, needs full sun and grows in soils from black cracking clays to coarse river sand. It tolerates both drought and seasonal flooding. In its native range it is kept in check by insects and fungi, but where these are absent it can become a serious weed: introduced to the botanic gardens at Darwin in Australia in the late 1800s, it escaped and since the late 1970s has invaded wetlands and pasture in northern Australia, helped by its fast growth and its seeds, which float. The seeds have a hard coat and germinate freely after the coat is softened or after burning.
Source: Useful Tropical Plants database (Fern, K.).
In traditional medicine, parts of the plant are used to treat infections, digestive disorders, swelling, and anxiety, though high doses may be toxic.
Young leaves are occasionally browsed by livestock, but heavy prickles greatly limit its value as forage.
The seeds are sometimes used in traditional crafts, though cultural uses are generally limited.
The plant is not recommended for cultivation due to its extreme invasiveness and is managed through mechanical, chemical, and biological control methods.