Hi Jane!! I live in North East Mississippi and we have so many Mimosa trees growing (mostly wild) around here. My grandmother had two in her side yard with a swing under them. They provided so much shade and all the neighbors would gather around that spot in the summer evenings to visit. I've had many a glass of lemonaide and watermellon slices under those trees!!

They are a bit messy though and so many little sprouts come up around them. Here is a link that I found:
http://www.monrovia.com/PlantInf.nsf/0/581513f25bd3a5948825684d0070301d?OpenDocument

I hope that this helps you with the information that you need. You also might try searching for "Mimosa trees native to Mississippi" or something like that. :-D

What a lovely image that brings to mind. We always ate our watermelon outside (too messy indoors) and the thought of lemonade on a hot day makes my mouth water. Thanks for the link (the picture of the flower was just as I remembered) but we live outside its heat zone here I'm afraid. I could try it but I don't think it would be happy. The summers here are nice but don't often rise above 86 degrees.