sensitive plant

plural sensitive plants

1. obsoleteAn organism thought to be intermediate between plants and animals; a zoophyte.First known use 17th c.
2. A plant that moves in response to touch and other physical stimuli; especially Mimosa pudica, an annual plant native to Central and South America.First known use 17th c.

   The heart is the true sensitive plant—revolting at a touch.

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 284

   2 more examples

   The picture that was found on a bramble-bush, the new sensitive-plant, or tree, which caught the swain by the upper-garment, and presented to his ravished eyes a portrait.

   1788, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary: A Fiction

   A Sensitive Plant in a garden grew, / And the young winds fed it with silver dew, / And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light, / And closed them beneath the kisses of the night.

   1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Sensitive Plant”, in Prometheus Unbound […], London: C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier […], →OCLC, part first, stanza 1, page 157

   Synonyms: noli me tangere, sensitive weed, shame plant, shy plant, sleepy plant, touch-me-not