Mimosa (Beta Crucis) is the second brightest star of in the constellation Crux; its relatively modern name, which comes from the Latin for "actor" (and is also a word used in botany), is of unknown origin. Mimosa is a hot giant B star and also a binary whose components are only about 8 AU apart – too close to resolve – and have an orbital period of 5 years. Mimosa is also a multiply-periodic Beta Cephei star that varies between magnitudes 1.23 and 1.31 with periods of 5.68, 3.87, and 2.91 hours.