Desmodium gyrans
- noun
- Specialized
:
Desmodium gyrans
- In the sunlight, Desmodium gyrans displays its characteristic jerky motions of the small lateral leaves.
Examples
-
The Desmodium gyrans is often called the telegraph plant.
-
Gardeners sometimes cultivate Desmodium gyrans as an ornamental curiosity due to its remarkable leaf movement.
-
The unique movement of the Desmodium gyrans leaflets has fascinated botanists for centuries.
-
Have you ever seen a Desmodium gyrans in bloom?
-
Gardeners sometimes cultivate Desmodium gyrans as an ornamental curiosity due to its remarkable leaf movement.
-
In the sunlight, Desmodium gyrans displays its characteristic jerky motions of the small lateral leaves.
-
The unique movement of the Desmodium gyrans leaflets has fascinated botanists for centuries.
Synonyms
A tropical Asian shrub called the telegraph plant whose small side leaves move up and down in sunlight
A tropical shrub with small leaves that move up and down in sunlight
A tropical bush with small leaves that move in sunlight
A tropical bush with small leaves that move in sunlight
Surface Forms
Morphology
Desmodium + gyrans
The binomial name literally combines the genus name Desmodium with the Latin participle gyrans (related to English 'gyrate' = turning), so the phrase denotes a Desmodium that 'gyrates' — a descriptive, compositional meaning that matches the plant's moving leaflets. However, one constituent is a taxonomic proper noun and the other is a rare Latin form not familiar to most learners; understanding therefore requires recognition of Latin-derived morphology or botanical context, making the transparency only partial.
Etymology
Desmodium gyrans is a tropical Asian shrub often called the telegraph plant because its small leaflets twist and bob in the sun like the moving arm of an old telegraph, so it looks as if the plant is 'sending signals'. That's why the name fits a plant whose leaves actually 'move' in sunlight.
