Definition of "sensitive plant" []

• A shrubby tropical American plant (Mimosa pudica) having mauve flower heads and bipinnately compound leaves with leaflets and leafstalks that fold and droop when touched. Also called touch-me-not. (noun)
• Any of various similar plants, such as Cassia nictitans, of eastern and central North America. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Opposition and indifference, which stimulate more vigorous natures, affected Chopin as touch does the mimosa pudica, the sensitive plant ” they made him shrink and wither."
• "Another form of plant-like life takes the colour of rich green — the green of parsley, and faints at the touch, as does the sensitive plant of the land."