These are growing in my neighbor's front lawn:

Sensitive briar?

That one is most likely Mimosa hystricina.

Our database entry is woefully empty of information but the University of Texas has a page about this:

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/exhi...

It says it blooms Feb - June which corresponds to my experience here. I haven't looked recently but I haven't noticed it blooming lately.

If not M. hystricina, these are found in Texas also and bloom time lists September.

M. nuttallii:

Nuttall's Sensitive Briar (Mimosa nuttallii)
http://www.wildflower.org/plan...

or maybe,
M. latidens: http://www.wildflower.org/plan...

plantladylin said:If not M. hystricina, these are found in Texas also and bloom time lists September.

M. nuttallii:

Nuttall's Sensitive Briar (Mimosa nuttallii)
http://www.wildflower.org/plan...

or maybe,
M. latidens: http://www.wildflower.org/plan...

Neither of those is listed in this county, but they are listed in neighboring counties so you can't rule them out completely.
Interesting that all three of those mentioned were once considers vars. of Mimosa quadrivalvis.

I have two colors here in my part of north central Texas. They seem the same except one is bright pink like the photo and the other is bright yellow. On both, the stems, runners or whatever are spiny. Not thorny which might detach and embed in the skin, just rough like extremely coarse sandpaper. The blooms and plant seem attractive to me and I've considered trying them in hanging baskets but never have followed through. I only ever heard them called 'sensitive plants'. Here it's found growing in poor, thin soil over limestone. I'm interested in the suggestions because I don't know the id here either.

The yellow one is probably Yellow Puff (Neptunia lutea).

Horntoad said:

all three of those mentioned were once considers vars. of Mimosa quadrivalvis.

I'm afraid the jury's still out on this one. The Catalogue of Life, to which we generally assign preference because it seems to have the most up-to-date information, and GRIN still recognize Mimosa quadrivalvis var. hystricina, Mimosa quadrivalvis var. latidens, and Mimosa quadrivalvis var. nuttallii as accepted names and do not list M. hystricina, M. latidens, or M. nuttallii as accepted names.

ITIS, on the other hand, lists the three vars. as synonyms of M. hystricina, M. latidens, and M. nuttallii, and The Plant List actually recognizes all six as accepted names.

Accordingly, we have listed all six in our database, but there probably will be changes in the future, and three are most likely to be reclassified as synonyms of three others.

I can't speak to which species (or variety, as the case may be) it is.

I do grow M. nuttallii in my yard, though. It normally blooms in the late spring/early summer. But, if it's mowed off after blooming, and we get some rain, it will rebloom in late summer/fall.

Never tried growing it in a hanging basket, but I'd be a little surprised if it worked. There's a pretty amazing root system underneath that seemingly unassuming plant. It doesn't look like the sort of root that would do well if confined to a pot.

Thanks Kent,

I've never tried digging one up so haven't seen the root system. Doesn't surprise me much. A lot of plants that grow in the thin, poor soil over the limestone have long, strong roots that find crevices in the limestone. Hard to dig up successfully and usually hard to transplant if you do manage. If I ever get around to trying it, it would most likely be starting from seeds.