On 20/11/06 04:30, in article
, "Farm1"
please@askifyouwannaknow wrote:

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
"Farm1" wrote
???? I'm curious. What do you call a "mimosa" in the UK?

I notice that the Cape Wattle is from the Mimosa family
http://www.anbg.gov.au/gnp/gnp9/para...lophantha.html and
I
know I'd call anything that has the fluffy yellow flower a
"wattle"
and thus mentally bung it in what you Brits call "mimosa" but what
do
you Brits bung into the mimosa category (or exclude, as the case
may
be)?

Over this side of the pond (and most of the rest of the world too)

Not this part of the world :-)) Hhere in Australia, it's plain old
wattle. None of this "Mimosa" name which I've always thought was
silly soft woofy name for a right thug of a plant.

we
usually refer to Acacia dealbata as Mimosa.

Only A. dealbata or the rest of the acacia tribe as well?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albizia says it all.

Now I'm more confused than ever. That site seems to suggest that
Albizzias are often called Mimosa. And when I clicked on the
reference at that site that led me to Mimosa, it took me to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimosa
Which has even more plants listed as being called Mimosa.

When I lived in the UK and saw "Mimosa" for sale in florists it was
always wattle (acacia) of some sort (and I seemed to think at the time
that it was probably Cootamundra wattle - A. baileyana). And given
that it is supposedly bad luck to have wattle inside, I never bought
any of it even though it made me quite homesick.



The mimosa in shops here is either A. baileyana or A. dealbata, I think.
Luckily, we don't regard it as unlucky to have it in the house. ;-) I
don't think I know anyone who calls it wattle and it doesn't seem to be seen
as a thug here, possibly because it's quite tender in many parts of the
country. It does grow very quickly though and has wonderful powers of
recovery - we have a A. dealbata in the garden which is an offshoot from the
broken off trunk of the original, knocked down in a gale. It has flowered
magnificently in the last two years and approaching our house from the
slight rise at one end of the village, there was this wonderful golden glow
that was visible hundreds of yards away.

We call Albizias, Albizia, not mimosa.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/