Animals & nature · 2021
Do wild sensitive plants respond less when harmless touches keep repeating?
Yes. Wild Mimosa pudica plants in Costa Rica showed a reduced leaf-closing response to repeated, very light, harmless stimulation, but not to stimulation that simulated leaf damage. This suggests that the reduced response depended on whether the stimulation was harmful, rather than occurring with all repeated stimulation.
Details
Mimosa pudica, also called the sensitive plant, rapidly closes its leaves when touched. Researchers working in Monteverde, Costa Rica, tested wild plants with repeated harmful and harmless stimulation. They measured how far the leaflets closed and how long they took to reopen.
The plants became less responsive to repeated, very light, harmless stimulation—a pattern called habituation. They did not show habituation to simulated leaf damage. That contrast is the central finding: repetition alone did not reduce the response under both conditions.
Plants exposed to harmless stimulation 15 days earlier also became less responsive more quickly when tested again. This suggests possible long-term memory, but does not establish it conclusively. The abstract does not report the number of plants or the size of the changes, limiting how precisely the strength of the effect can be assessed.
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