Biophytum Sensitivum seed

LATIN NAME: Biophytum sensitivum

COMMON NAME: Little Tree Plant

The little tree plant is a neat, small, touch-sensitive, annual or perennial herb of the warm, shaded places, and its fine, feathery, pinnate leaves of the many small leaflets and its small, pale-yellow, five-petalled flowers have made it one of the most fascinating and most charming of the small plants of the warm garden. It grows as a neat, small, upright herb, reaching up to half a metre or less, with the upright, slender, simple stem bearing the fine, feathery, pinnate leaves of the many small leaflets at the top and, through the warm months, the small, pale-yellow, five-petalled flowers in the small clusters, followed by the small, dry, many-seeded capsules. It is a species of the flowering plant in the wood sorrel family, and it is native to the warm, shaded places of the tropical and the subtropical regions, while it is grown as a treasured curiosity of the warm garden, and it is known as the little tree plant.

In the wood sorrel family it is the shy comedian of the clan, folding its feathery leaves in a gentle wave the moment a finger comes near.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The little tree plant fascinates the plant-movement researchers, and the way its feathery leaves fold up in a wave when touched has made it a favourite subject of the classrooms and the botanical press of the world. The physiology of the movement keeps the scientists busy, and the traditional use of the plant in the warm regions has given the natural-product chemists their own line of work on its parts. The botanists have traced its place in the wood sorrel family and the warm, shaded flora of the tropics, and the horticulturists grow it for the terrarium and the windowsill. It is a plant that teaches as much as it delights, and the growers of the curious house plants keep it in their collections.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the warm terrarium, the little tree plant is the small wonder that never fails to charm. Its small, pale-yellow flowers feed the tiny insects, the feathery leaves fold and open with the touch, and the neat, little form fills the shaded windowsill and the classroom pot with quiet fascination. It is an easy, undemanding plant of the warm, bright, sheltered spot, and it grows well in the moist, leafy, free-draining mix. Feathery, touchy and cheerful.

These are easy, undemanding seeds — sow them just under the surface of a pot of moist, leafy, free-draining compost, keep the pot warm, bright and evenly damp, and the first tiny feathery leaves will unfold for you before long, each little leaf ready to wave at the first finger that comes near.