h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Sensitive Plant - Mimosa Pudica - A6056813
Author: radioactiveBigAl1 - Patron Saint of Left Handers. Keeper of mnemonics. Saboteur of boring and banal conversation. - U723247

Just found some Sensitive Plant' seeds in my greenhouse,which are a couple of years old. The instructions said I could plant themn in a greenhouse throughout the year.

However, having read up about the plant some more, the fruits of which are here, I'm wondering whether I should've waited 'til spring.

Anyway, I planted haf a dozen seeds of which one germinated after about a week. The skill now is to get it to over-winter.

PS There are still some minor cosmetic things which I have in hand, eg check for a few more h2g2 links, put in 'Entity Codes' for degrees C and... s'thing else which temporarily escapes me.

... ah yes, explain some medical terms in footnotes.

Never come across one of these in the flesh so to speak. They're one of the ones people can't keep their hands off if they see them!

There's a wee bit of a spell check needed. Other than that though, maybe this bit in the Aftercare section:

"Although a perennial, M. pudica is best treated as an annual, to be kept for one season only. This is because, as well as bein difficult to over-winter, it tends to become rather unsightly as it ages."

...would be better in the "Over-wintering" section below?

I think perhaps the last paragraph could do with a bit of explanation for the general reader - ie. those who don't know what "depress duodenal contractions similar to atropine sulphone" means.

'Although a perennial, M. pudica is best treated as an annual, to be kept for one season only. This is because, as well as bein difficult to over-winter, it tends to become rather unsightly as it ages.'

...would be better in the "Over-wintering" section below?

No, I think it belongs more naturally in the 'Aftercare' section.

'I think perhaps the last paragraph could do with a bit of explanation for the general reader - ie. those who don't know what "depress duodenal contractions similar to atropine sulphone" means'.

Yes, I agree. I don't know precisely what it means myself. I think it may be to slow down duodenal contractions to facilitate examination in the case of (suspected) duodenal ulcer. However I've asked one of the medical Researchers (Z) for clarification/confirmation of this.

Spewll checking done. There were rather more errors/typos than I would have thought (7)

Hi, RBA!

This is a facinating plant, and I'm delighted to see an entry about it!

I think you need to separate the natural habitat/greenhouse stuff a bit more. For example, you say "As suggested above, the sensitive plant is grown mainly as an indoor plant mainly for its fascinating behaviour." Since it's an invasive weed in warm climates, I think this is a bit misleading. If you change "As suggested above" to "In temperate climates" this would help. When grown as an annual, does it actually reach the 60 cm height? I've seen swathes of shrubby M. pudica in botanical garden greenhouses (The Eden Project has a fine display), but any I've seen as ordinary greenhouse/conservatory plants have been much smaller.

"M.pudica was first described from Brazil and is probably native to most or all of the New World Tropics. Today, it is considered to be a pan tropical weed.
M. pudica is indigenous to the northern hemisphere, being common in rather moist waste ground, in lawns, in open plantations, and in weedy thickets."

I think that "indigenous to the northern hemisphere" is seriously misleading--it suggests a much wider range than the more correct tropical Americas. I think you should change this sentence,to avoid repetition, and emphasise that it's common only in warm climates:
"In warm climates such as that of Hawaii(or whatever), M. pudica is common in rather moist waste ground, in lawns, in open plantations, and in weedy thickets."

In the paragraph about Hooke, you're giving a lot of space the the 17th century investigation of the nastic movements, and not enough to modern explanations. I know that it's not fully understood, but your sentence is really unclear:
"modern view which attributes the collapse of the cells to the escape of water from the cell cavities or from the cell walls into the intracellular spaces,"
"The cell cavities" is particularly opaque--I really don't know what you mean by this. It's known that the cells are losing turgor pressure--what's not clear is how this happens so quickly.
Losing turgor pressure:
The cytoplasm inside its membrane bag loses water and shrinks a bit. When the shrunken cell stops pressing against the cell wall, the cell goes soft (Like letting the air out of a tyre). The soft cells can no longer support the leaf stalk, which droops.
The mystery is in how the movement of water is controlled, not in how changing turgor pressure causes the drooping.

There is an Edited Entry on Plant Movement at A378641. I think it needs a few changes, but would be worth referencing anyway. It can always be updated when this entry is picked


Azara

'There is an Edited Entry on Plant Movement at A378641'.

I have referenced that.

I'll take a look at your other points

Sorry, I don't know how I missed that!

Azara

'When grown as an annual, does it actually reach the 60 cm height?'.

Well, I wrote this because that's what is said on the packet of 'Mr Fothergill's' seeds that I bought. [Quote: "Height 2ft (60cm)"].

However, I've never managed to grow it to that size, but I put that down to my inexperience/incompetence. I've only tried growing it from seed about 3 or 4 times.

BTW, the 'lengthy' bit about Robert Hooke etc is there purely as an indication of how long people have been interested in this plant. I didn't really want to get into the intricacies of plant physiology, as I think most people would only be interested in the fun of growing the plant.

However, I'll give some thought to re-wording what I put.

Since it's the reason people want to grow it in the first place, I think a short explanation of what's happening would certainly be a good idea!

Now if you don't want to get too technical, I think the duodenal contractions are far more deserving of the chop.

Seriously, have any of those experimental effects been developed into actual treatments?


Azara

'have any of those experimental effects been developed into actual treatments?'

Not to my knowledge. There are people who use it as a herbal medicine but it hasn't proven itself to be able to treat anything- pharmaceutical companies are still researching its properties and uses.

I'm working on the duodenal contractions - waiting to hear whether Researcher Z can help me with that.

A.

Azara. I've tried explaining the mechanism a bit better - but I'm no botanist. I'd never heard of pulvini before I wrote this!

A

Could you perhaps make use of the tag to make the entries in the 'Referenced sites' section of the dtat box a bit more interesting than 'here', or 'flowers', or 'menhoragia'?

I'll try. I've not used this tag before.

... well, what I mean is I didn't know that it is the TITLE tag that performs this function. Now I know, I'll have a go.

I've put in the TITE tags, all except fro Menorrhagia - as this is exactly the word I would put within the TITLE tags anyway.

Much better. I like to use the TITLE tag almost every time I link to an outside website because the words in the data box should start with capital letters - 'Mimosine', 'Menhorragia', which of course they don't if they're in the middle of a sentence in the entry.