English: Little tree plant; Life plant; Sensitive plant.
German: Gestimulierender Lebensbaum, Schlaf-Pflanze.
Clades: Tracheophytes, Angiosperms,
Eudicots,
Rosids, Oxalidales,
Oxalidaceae.
Region: Asia, India, Nepal, Southeast Asia, tropical parts of Africa.
Habitat: tropical and subtropical; shaded, damp soils in lowland forests, grassy plains, wetlands.
Content: oxalic acid; bioactive flavonoids, amentoflavone.
Use: ornamental, im terrariums; various regional traditional herbal systems.
Other: Ornamental, displays seismonasty: leaves and leaflets fold inward rapidly when touched, shaken, or exposed to sudden changes in heat or light, similar to
Mimosa pudica.
BotanyType: herb; small; annual; under-shrub; mimicking a miniature palm tree.
Root: slender taproot; with fine lateral roots.
Stem: erect, unbranched; woody at the base; often bristly or hairy near the top, growing roughly 5 to 30 cm tall.
Leaves: pinnately compound; in a rosettelike arrangement at the apex of the stem, featuring 6 to 14 pairs of small leaflets; with specialized motor organs (pulvini) at their bases.
Inflorescence: umbel-like clusters; long, hairy peduncles; rising from the top of the plant.
Flowers: small, actinomorphic; 5 petals, yellow, sometimes with subtle reddish streaks.
Pollination: by small insects.
Fruit: small, ellipsoid-obovoid capsules; velvety-hairy; split open when ripe.
Seed: small, ovoid, transversely striate or tuberculate seeds.
Dispersion: by gravity, ballistic dehiscence.