sensitive plant
English
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Noun
editsensitive plant (plural sensitive plants)
- (obsolete) An organism thought to be intermediate between plants and animals; a zoophyte. [17th c.]
- A plant that moves in response to touch and other physical stimuli; especially Mimosa pudica, an annual plant native to Central and South America. [from 17th c.]
- Synonyms: noli me tangere, sensitive weed, shame plant, shy plant, sleepy plant, touch-me-not
- 1788, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary: A Fiction[1]:
- The picture that was found on a bramble-bush, the new sensitive-plant, or tree, which caught the swain by the upper-garment, and presented to his ravished eyes a portrait.
- 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Sensitive Plant”, in Prometheus Unbound […], London: C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier […], →OCLC, part first, stanza 1, page 157:
- A Sensitive Plant in a garden grew, / And the young winds fed it with silver dew, / And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light, / And closed them beneath the kisses of the night.
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 284:
- The heart is the true sensitive plant—revolting at a touch.
Translations
editMimosa pudica
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