sensitive plant
- noun
- /ˈsɛnsɪtɪv plænt/
:
planta sensible
- Children love to play with the sensitive plant as its leaves respond to their gentle touch.
Examples
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The sensitive plant, also known as Mimosa pudica, quickly folds its leaves when touched.
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The sensitive plant, yes.
Academic text (2007) -
The boy stops to show me in the grass tiny fronds of the sensitive plant that shudder away from his rude little finger with a voluntary movement startling to see in a plant.
Blog text (22) -
In our garden, the sensitive plant stands out because its leaves droop in response to contact.
Synonyms
A small tropical plant with leaves that quickly fold and droop when touched or at night
A plant whose leaves fold when touched or at night
A plant with leaves that fold together when you touch them
A small bush from the tropics whose leaves fold when touched and that has sharp thorns
A tropical plant with grey-green leaves that fold when touched and stems with curved thorns
A tropical plant whose small leaves fold quickly when touched or at night
A prickly bush from tropical America whose leaves fold when touched or in bright light
How Mobile
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a literal modifier+noun combination: 'sensitive' (readily affected by stimuli) + 'plant' yields a plant that reacts to touch or other stimuli, which directly matches the given definition of Mimosa pudica. This compositional, non-idiomatic meaning follows normal semantic rules and is cross-linguistically recognizable, so a B1 learner who knows both words would understand the MWE.
Etymology
Sensitive plant is a name that comes from a small tropical plant whose leaves fold at the lightest touch, so people thought the word sensitive described the shy plant. That's why sensitive plant means 'a plant whose leaves close when touched'.