Semaphore-plant

Codariocalyx motorius, the telegraph or dancing plant, is a tropical Asian shrublet of the legume family, formerly known as Desmodium gyrans. It grows to roughly a metre tall, with erect stems bearing trifoliolate leaves whose large terminal leaflet is flanked by two much smaller lateral leaflets. The plant is celebrated for the rapid, jerky gyrating movements of these small lateral leaflets, which rotate on their own in daylight, making it one of the few plants capable of visible rapid motion. Small purplish, pea-like flowers are carried in terminal and axillary racemes and are followed by curved, jointed pods characteristic of the tribe Desmodieae. Native to lowland scrub, forest margins and disturbed ground from India and Sri Lanka through Indochina to southern China and South-East Asia, it favours warm, humid conditions. The plant contains flavonoids, phenolics and indole and related alkaloids that underlie its long-standing role in regional folk medicine.