From time to time, I like to write an article about the oddness of some leaves. Here’s yet another, about plants whose leaves actually move.
Leaves Move All the Time
The truth is, leaves that move are not that unusual. They notably move in the wind, or when touched by rain drops or brushed against. However, there are extraneous movements: the plant isn’t moving on its own, it is being moved. That said, many plants do have leaves that move themselves. You’ll learn more about them by reading the following text.
Movement for Protection
Many plants have leaves that curl up or roll down under stressful conditions—drought or cold, for example—but recover afterward. The resurrection fern (Pleopeltis polypodioides, syn.Polypodium polypodioides) can survive without a drop of water for many months, even years, then its apparently dead fronds become completely green and functional within 24 hours after a good soaking. Two other resurrection plants are the rose of Jericho (Selaginella lepidophylla) and the alpine gesneriad ramonda (Ramonda spp.).
As for movement to improve cold resistance, the thick leaves of many hardy rhododendrons (Rhododendron spp.) lose most of their moisture and both curl and hang limply all winter, giving their owners quite a scare, yet recover fully when spring returns. It’s thought this habit helps keep frost crystals from forming and damaging leaf cells.
Turning Towards the Sun
On most plants, leaves will turn to face the direction of the sun, at least to some degree. If you transplant or otherwise move a plant—or even if you just cut an overhanging branch that was blocking the sun!—the leaf will adjust, changing its position, usually quite slowly, over days or weeks. This is particularly easy to observe on a forest edge where most light comes from the side or on a windowsill in your home if you don’t give your houseplants the traditional quarter turn regularly: most of the leaves will clearly orient towards the light. This habit of growing towards the source of light is called phototropism. (Remember that term from school?)
Other plants have the curious habits of folding their leaves at night, either upward or downward, a phenomenon called nyctinasty. It’s actually very common in some plant families, such as the legume family (Fabaceae) and the oxalis family (Oxalidaceae). You may have noticed this in clover (Trifolium) or false shamrock (Oxalis triangularis), but the best-known nyctinastic plant is the popular houseplant known as the prayer plant (Maranta leuconeura), whose leaves fold up at night like hands in prayer.
This kind of movement is caused by a hinge-like structure at the base of the leaf or leaflet called the pulvinus (plural: pulvini) that is filled with water during the day, but drains at night, so that the resulting lack of turgor causes the leaf to fold.
Scientists still debate why plants do this.
Plants That Dance
There are plants that, under the appropriate conditions, take the concept of nyctinasty one step further. They too have pulvini and do close at night, but during the day, seem to be constantly readjusting themselves. The fire fern (Oxalis hedysaroides ‘Rubra’), not a fern at all, is a red-leaved oxalis sometimes grown as a houseplant, one of these “dancing plants.”
The telegraph plant (formerly Desmodium gyrans, now Codariocalyx motorius), is another occasional houseplant with seemly motorized leaves.
Both plants will only perform when conditions are fairly warm and humid, but if you sit in from of one and watch patiently, you’ll see each leaf seems to be slowly moving, giving the impression the plant is lazily dancing. The fire fern will also react to touch, at least to a slight degree, but more about touch sensitive plants later.
The tropical fruit carambola or starfruit (Averrhoa carambola), in the Oxalidaceae, likewise has leaflets that both close up at night and move visibly, although slowly, during the day, all on their own … if you watch them patiently!
Response to Touch
Plants that react to touch are certainly the weirdest of all plants with leaves that move. This phenomenon, known as thigmonasty or seismonasty, occurs when something touches or shakes the leaf. And some will also react when you hold a match up to them. This can be incredibly rapid and is certainly visible. Again, all these plants close up at night and, again, it’s pulvinus at the leaf or leaflet’s base that empties rapidly, causing the leaf folding. Studies show that there is even an electrical current that runs between the pulvini on many of these plants, almost like nerves in animals, plus there is also a chemical reaction involved.
The best known thigmonastic plant is the sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica), a legume also known as sleepy plant, dormilona, touch-me-not or shy plant, a decent if usually short-lived houseplant easy to grow from seed … and also a pernicious and quite prickly weed in tropical countries. A light touch will cause a single leaflet of the bipinnately compound leaf to fold inward, a firmer touch will lead to the whole leaf drooping and shaking the plant will cause all its leaves to collapse. If you run a finger down the leaf, the leaflets will close like dominoes, as in the photo below. Yet if you leave the leaf alone, it will recover in just 15 to 30 minutes.
It’s thought this quick reaction to touch helps prevent foraging by grazing animals. I mean, wouldn’t you stop eating if you thought you were biting into a luscious plant, then the leaves all collapsed after your tongue touched the first one, leaving the plant looking barren, unappetizing and full of (previously hidden) thorns?
M. pudica is the most commonly grown sensitive plant, but there are some 400 other species in the genus Mimosa, both herbs and shrubs, all sensitive to touch to at least some degree. There is even a hardy sensitive plant (zone5) that can be grown as a perennial, M. nuttallii.
Note that these are true mimosas, not the trees and shrubs often called mimosas and which are actually very different, non-sensitive plants with similar pinnate leaves such as Albizia julibrissin(silk tree) and several acacias, including Acacia dealbata(blue wattle or mimosa).
There are also several species of “aquatic sensitive” (Neptunia spp.) with leaves much like those of the sensitive plant that react to touch in a similar fashion. As the common name suggests, they grow in water or at least under very boggy conditions.
Less well known is the little tree plant (Biophytum sensitivum), a small herbaceous houseplant in the Oxalidaceae that looks like a tiny palm tree and is sometimes used as a tree substitute in terrariums and fairy gardens. It is modestly touch sensitive … but its leaves move all on their own much of the time, albeit quite slowly.
Finally, the partridge or sensitive pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata), a fairly common annual species oflegume native to the eastern United States, also has pinnate leaves that close at night … and are slightly sensitive to the touch during the day.
Touchy Feely Carnivores
The other group that includes plants sensitive to touch are carnivorous plants or, more correctly, insectivorous plants.
The best known of these is the Venus flytrap (Dionaeamuscipula), often offered as a houseplant, although rarely very long-lived in the average home environment. I already wrote a bit about this plant in 5 Plants with Weird Foliage. It’s bear trap-shaped leaves are dotted with tiny hairs. If an insect touches one hair, nothing will happen. This is believed to be a protection to keep leaves from closing for inopportune reasons, such as when a raindrop or a fallen leaf touches it. However, if the hair is touched a second time within 20 seconds, or if a second hair is touched within the same time limit, the cause is probably a wandering arthropod and the trap closes rapidly, in one tenth of a second. After that, the insect is slowly digested, then the trap opens again. It takes 5 to 14 hours for the trap to reopen after a false alert, while actually digesting an insect can take 10 days or more.
Less well-known than the Venus flytrap, bladderworts (Utricularia spp.) are even faster. Their bladder-shaped trap is small modified leaf, so designed that when it is “set,” a vacuum forms inside the bladder. If a water flea or other small invertebrate touches the sensitive hair on the outside, the trap opens, instantly sucks in the creature, then closes. The whole process only takes ten to fifteen thousandths of a second.
Gardeners won’t likely find this trap as fascinating as that of the Venus flytrap, as all of this action takes place more or less out of sight underwater or even underground in soggy soil, as bladderworts are bog or aquatic plants.
Other insectivorous plants show some leaf movement. Some sundews (Drosera spp.) have leaves that will slowly wrap around their prey once it is glued to the sticky glands that cover them, but this happens so slowly you’d need a time-lapse camera to notice. Butterworts (Pinguicula spp.) leaves also roll up slightly when they trap a prey item, but their movement is even less impressive than that of sundews.
Leaves that move: one of Mother Nature’s little surprises!
sensitive plant, (Mimosa pudica), also called humble plant, plant in the pea family (Fabaceae) that responds to touch and other stimulation by rapidly closing its leaves and drooping. Native to South and Central America, the plant is a widespread weed in tropical regions and has naturalized elsewhere in warm areas.
The slender pitcher plant uses the energy of falling raindrops to move faster than we can see. Since it doesn't use its own energy, it can move for as long as the downpour lasts. No other plant in the known botanical world has this ability.
Shame plant, Mimosa pudica, or sensitive plant, is named for its unique characteristic of curling up when touched. The fernlike leaves will curl inwards when disturbed. It's purple fuzzy flowers make it an attractive houseplant, however, the plant contains alkaloids which are toxic to people and animals.
Many plants perform these movements, called tropisms. One of the most common tropisms is what you observed in your own houseplant. It's called phototropism, and it happens when plants move towards sunlight.
The truth is, leaves that move are not that unusual. They notably move in the wind, or when touched by rain drops or brushed against. However, there are extraneous movements: the plant isn't moving on its own, it is being moved. That said, many plants do have leaves that move themselves.
Socratea exorrhiza is a palm native to rainforests in tropical Central and South America. The tree supposedly “walks” from shade to sunlight by growing roots in the direction it wants to travel, and then allowing the old roots to lift into the air and die.
Yes, plants most definitely can move. They need to move in order to grow, catch sunlight, and for some to feed. One of the most typical ways that plants move is through a process known as phototropism.
When we touch Mimosa pudica (touch me not ), our touch acts as stimulus for plant and it closes its leaves in return. Some chemicals are released from the stem when we touch the plant. These chemicals force water to move out of the cell leading to the loss of turgor pressure. As a result, leaves droop.
This study indicates that M. pudica contains an effective psychotropic agent that acts via the benzodiazepine site of the GABAA receptor complex as an anxiolytic at low doses and as a muscle relaxant at higher doses. These results in part could justify and confirm the use of this plant extract as an anxiolytic agent.
It majorly possesses antibacterial, antivenom, antifertility, anticonvulsant, antidepressant, aphrodisiac, and various other pharmacological activities. The herb has been used traditionally for ages, in the treatment of urogenital disorders, piles, dysentery, sinus, and also applied on wounds.
Is it Bad to Touch a Touch-Me-Not Plant? Although one of its common names is the touch-me-not plant, Mimosa pudica is not harmed when touched, and it will not harm you either.
Scientists already know that plants are highly sensitive to touch of any kind, and even have a word for this phenomenon, “thigmomorphogenesis.” If you've ever touched a Mimosa pudica (also known as the “sensitive plant”) you have already witnessed this phenomenon first hand—the Mimosa's fan-like leaves close up like, ...
Plants can sense a lot about their environment and it can cause them stress. Unlike most humans and animals though, when plants face predation, damage, or environmental changes they can't run away and hide. Sessile – or stalkless – plants evolved to be incredibly sensitive to their environment in order to survive.
Given that plants do not have pain receptors, nerves, or a brain, they do not feel pain as we members of the animal kingdom understand it. Uprooting a carrot or trimming a hedge is not a form of botanical torture, and you can bite into that apple without worry.
Does it look like your leaves are dripping water or “crying”? This process, called guttation, is completely normal — your plant isn't upset! We see many plant hobbyists ask why their plant is dripping water and if it's okay, or a signal that something isn't right.
Nutation refers to the bending movements of stems, roots, leaves and other plant organs caused by differences in growth in different parts of the organ.
Introduction. Earth-moving plant is commonly used on construction sites to transport and place excavated soil. Before beginning earth-moving works, there must be a plan for the amount of material that needs to be moved as well as where it will be moved to.
Plants move in response to light. I think that is what my foxglove was doing, moving towards first the morning and then the afternoon sunlight. This movement is called phototropism. Specialized hormone cells, known as auxins, control growth by stimulating cell elongation.
Plants move during the day and as they grow, creating their own movement patterns. That dance creates a sound that changes based on a variety of environmental factors, including sun, soil quality, and nutrients.
However, nature surprises again with an extraordinary plant that can walk. The plant is Socratia Exorhiza, a palm tree known as a walking plant. It is said that the tree moves around 20 metres every year. Socratia is a genus of five species of palms found in tropical Central America and South America.
Second of all, banana trees can actually walk up to 40 cm during their life. However, this is because of the way they're cultivated rather than it being a natural phenomenon.
Dendrophilia (or less often arborphilia or dendrophily) literally means "love of trees". The term may sometimes refer to a paraphilia in which people are sexually attracted to or sexually aroused by trees. This may involve sexual contact or veneration as phallic symbols or both.
Roots of plants are exquisitely conscious and aware of self and not-self and engage in sophisticated interactions with a wide range of living organisms. The plant roots enter into symbiotic relationships with bacteria, fungi, and communicate with other plants that are highly sophisticated.
Trees, of course, don't move themselves. But their populations can shift over time, and saplings can expand into a new region while older growth dies in another.
Your plants really dislike when you touch them, apparently. A new study out of the La Trobe Institute for Agriculture and Food has found that most plants are extremely sensitive to touch, and even a light touch can significantly stunt their growth, reports Phys.org.
Inducible defenses in plants are an antipredator behavior that acts on a longer time scale, but sensitive plants, Mimosa pudica, have a much more rapid antipredator response; they temporarily close their leaves when touched. The time they remain closed is defined as hiding time.
Moist and humid is the mantra with Mimosa pudica! It thrives in high humidity and likes its soil to be constantly damp (but not soggy!). Place your plant near a humidifier if you have one, or mist regularly with a spray bottle and make sure you water regularly to prevent the soil drying out.
Psychoactive plants with compounds in this group include the peyote cactus, Datura species, Salvia divinorum, and various morning-glory species such as Turbina corymbosa.
Tree frogs belonging to the genus Phyllomedusa, notably P. bicolor: opioid peptides, including deltorphin, deltorphin I, deltorphin II, and dermorphin.
Plants and their derived molecules have been traditionally used to manage numerous pathological complications, including male erectile dysfunction (ED). Mimosa pudica Linn. commonly referred to as the touch-me-not plant, and its extract are important sources of new lead molecules in drug discovery research.
Mimosa Pudica Plant Leaves: The leaves of touch me not plant, either in the form of decoction or as a paste is used for treating haemorrhoids, wounds, fistula, pink eye, toe infections, depression, insomnia and hydrocele.
Plants may not have feelings but they are indeed alive and have been described as sentient life forms that have “tropic” and “nastic” responses to stimuli. Plants can sense water, light, and gravity — they can even defend themselves and send signals to other plants to warn that danger is here, or near.
In addition, at night you may not be able to see dangerous, spiders, bugs, or snakes that make their home in trees. In addition, at night it is difficult to identify dangerous plants (e.g. poison ivy, poison oak, stinging nettle, etc.).
Do Plants React to Human Voices? Here's the good news: plants do respond to the sound of your voice. In a study conducted by the Royal Horticultural Society, research demonstrated that plants did respond to human voices.
Plants will definitely experience something like being “lonely” in pots because they miss out on underground connections. The majority of plants form symbioses with fungi underground, via their roots. Physical connections between the roots of different plants are …
Plants thrive when they listen to music that sits between 115Hz and 250Hz, as the vibrations emitted by such music emulate similar sounds in nature. Plants don't like being exposed to music more than one to three hours per day. Jazz and classical music seems to be the music of choice for ultimate plant stimulation.
There is no consistent scientific evidence that talking or singing to plants helps them grow better or produce more fruit. Some studies have shown an effect on plants from music or single tones, some haven't.
The mimosa pudica — also known as the sleepy plant or touch-me-not — reacts dramatically when touched or shaken. When touched lightly, its leaves collapse, two by two, until the whole cluster closes up. The harder you bump it, the faster and more strongly it reacts.
The oleander, also known as laurel of flower or trinitaria, is a shrub plant (of Mediterranean origin and therefore, resistant to droughts) with intensely green leaves and whose leaves, flowers, stems, branches and seeds are all highly poisonous, hence it is also known as "the most poisonous plant in the world".
Oddly enough, another plant, Sulphur Cinquefoil (Potentilla recta) seemed to enjoy the human contact. Its leaves looked better than the control plants, and they were free of insects.
The sensitive plant. Mimosa pudica, known as the sensitive plant, and some of its relatives are other well-known thigmonastic plants. A touch stimulation results in a very rapid folding up of the small leaflets composing the doubly compound leaves (Fig.
Mimosa pudica (from Latin: pudica "shy, bashful or shrinking"; also called sensitive plant, sleepy plant, action plant, touch-me-not, shameplant) is a creeping annual or perennial flowering plant of the pea/legume family Fabaceae.
And since plants do not have brains, nor a central nervous system (which is how intelligence is defined), it is said to be impossible for them to have emotions and the ability to reason or feel.
What Is a Plant's Scream? According to a study on tobacco and tomato plants by Tel-Aviv University, researchers found that when stressed, certain plants produce an ultrasonic sound that is undetectable to the human ear. Keep in mind that being stressed can be caused by drought, insects, and yes, by being cut.
Do Plants React to Human Voices? Here's the good news: plants do respond to the sound of your voice. In a study conducted by the Royal Horticultural Society, research demonstrated that plants did respond to human voices. In this study, there were 10 tomato plants, 8 of which had headphones placed around their pots.
Given that plants do not have pain receptors, nerves, or a brain, they do not feel pain as we members of the animal kingdom understand it. Uprooting a carrot or trimming a hedge is not a form of botanical torture, and you can bite into that apple without worry.
Certain plants like Mimosa pudica (touch me not ), our touch acts as stimulus for plant and it closes its leaves in return. Some chemicals are released from the stem when we touch the plant.These chemicals force water to move out of the cell leading to the loss of turgor pressure. As a result, leaves droop.
Types of tropisms include gravitropism (gravity), phototropism (light), and thigmotropism (touch). Plant roots always grow downward because specialized cells in root caps detect and respond to gravity. This is an example of a tropism. A tropism is a turning toward or away from a stimulus in the environment.
Guttation is usually a sign of an over-watered plant since the saturated roots pressure the rest of the plant. This pressure forces the plant to exude its excess moisture (and nutrients) in the form of sap.
Harakeke (flax) and wharariki (mountain flax) were the main plants used for weaving. Their tough, sword-shaped leaves were woven into kete (baskets), sails, tukutuku panels and fishing nets. Muka, the prepared fibre of flax, was made into cord for tying adzes, fences, houses and canoes.
Curling leaves can be caused by many problems, including insect damage, disease, abiotic disorders, or even herbicides. There are several insect pests that cause leaves to curl when they suck plant juices of new or young leaves that are still growing. These include aphids, thrips, and whiteflies.
Introduction: My name is Stevie Stamm, I am a colorful, sparkling, splendid, vast, open, hilarious, tender person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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