Wild Sensitive Plant, Chamaecrista
nictitans
(Formerly known as Cassia nictitans)
Fabaceae or Pea Family
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Low plant, 6-30 inches tall, leaves with 8 to 15
pairs of oval leaflets. Leaves fold up when touched or in strong sunlight, but slowly. Flowers small but showy, yellow,
with 5 petals, 4 of the petals form a cup and the lower spreads out below them. Fruit a
flattened rectangular pod divided into neat squares. Blooms in late summer.
Native plant of open, sandy places. In Wildwood, common near the North Bridge. A distinctive plant, unlikely to be confused with any other in the Park. This plant was originally misidentified as C. fasciculata, partridge pea, but that plant has much larger flowers that open more widely. That species is not known from the Park, but would not be unexpected.
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