Sensitive-plant

Mimosa pudica is a sprawling, short-lived perennial herb or subshrub of the Fabaceae family, typically 15 to 80 centimetres tall, with slender, prostrate to ascending stems armed with sparse, recurved prickles and sparsely covered in bristly hairs. The bipinnate leaves, 4 to 10 centimetres long, bear one or two pairs of pinnae digitately arranged at the petiole tip, each pinna carrying 10 to 26 pairs of small, oblong leaflets 6 to 15 millimetres long; the leaflets fold rapidly together and the entire leaf droops within seconds when touched, shaken or warmed, recovering after several minutes. Globose to ovoid flower heads about 8 to 12 millimetres in diameter, with numerous pale pink to lilac-pink filamentous stamens giving a fluffy appearance, arise singly or in small groups on slender axillary peduncles. The fruit is a flat, slightly curved, bristly-margined legume pod 1 to 2 centimetres long, breaking transversely at maturity into single-seeded segments. Native to tropical America and now a widespread pantropical weed of disturbed ground, lawns and pastures.