images: © Barry A. Rice / The Nature Conservancy
Mimosa: three parts champagne to two parts orange juice; or, a genus of herbs and shrubs that includes the species Mimosa pudica, also known as the ‘Sensitive plant’ or ‘Sleeping grass’. ‘Pudica’ is Latin for ‘bashful’ or ’shrinking’ — in Chinese, the name translates to ’shyness grass’. When leaves are touched or subjected to rapid temperature changes, electrical signals are triggered that travel up the midvein, contracting each leaflet along the way. This type of response is known as nastic or nyctinastic movement. The following videos are in real-time — notice how with a stronger stimuli, the signal is redistributed to the rest of the leaf once it reaches the stem.
VIDEO [single response]
VIDEO [strong response]
LINK [Wikipedia article]
These clips come from a website compiled by Indiana University’s Dr. Roger P. Hangarter, with many more videos available of various other plants in motion:
LINK [Plants In Motion]
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