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Chamaecrista nictitans; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-09-25

Chamaecrista nictitans (L.) Moench

Sensitive partridge pea; Sensitive-pea; Partridge-pea; Wild sensitive-plant

Fabaceae · Illinois, Kansas +74

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Chamaecrista nictitans, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedChamaecrista nictitans, photograph (c) Joey Parsons, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chamaecrista nictitans, photograph (c) Joey Parsons, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chamaecrista nictitans, photograph (c) Joey Parsons, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chamaecrista nictitans, photograph (c) Joey Parsons, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chamaecrista nictitans, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 77 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-7.9°C
Record low -24.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,253mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
15–39DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Chamaecrista nictitans, the sensitive cassia, sensitive partridge pea, small partridge pea or wild sensitive plant, is a herbaceous species of legume widely distributed through the temperate and tropical Americas. It is an annual plant capable of rapid plant movement—its leaflets fold together when touched. However, a population at Haleakala National Park on the island of Maui, Hawaii, was reported as not being sensitive to touch.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Chamaecrista nictitans", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Chamaecrista

Chamaecrista is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, subfamily Caesalpinioideae. Members of the genus are commonly known as sensitive pea. Several species are capable of rapid plant movement. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Chamaecrista", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (862 mm of 1,204 mm) takes 8 months, March to October. Mean temperature moves 19.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to April.

Rain

1,204 mm in the median year at the habitat, 862 mm of it March to October. Wettest month July at 127 mm, driest month February at 79 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,040 mm to 1,678 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,253 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,204 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -7.9 °C, the absolute minimum -24.5 °C, 2,751 frost nights in 44 years, 62.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 1.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -4.1 °C to 19.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.3 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -7.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +67 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Chamaecrista nictitans through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 1.8 °C; 1,204 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-20°0°20°40°frost37.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-24.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 15–39RH 56–61%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 865 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C11 / 4–2714 / 6–2818 / 10–2923 / 17–3026 / 22–3129 / 25–3230 / 27–3230 / 27–3227 / 24–3022 / 18–2917 / 12–2812 / 6–28
Night °C2 / -4–203 / -3–207 / 1–2111 / 6–2216 / 11–2320 / 16–2422 / 18–2521 / 18–2518 / 15–2413 / 9–238 / 4–213 / -2–20
Rain mm84 / 32–13279 / 27–141102 / 21–14591 / 32–126104 / 60–153116 / 92–232127 / 94–214117 / 78–227110 / 84–23695 / 72–16289 / 44–13990 / 36–141
DLI17 / 14–3222 / 20–3529 / 26–3936 / 32–4339 / 36–4339 / 35–4138 / 35–4135 / 33–3930 / 27–3524 / 21–3318 / 14–3115 / 12–30
RH %58 / 56–6357 / 55–6256 / 54–6156 / 54–6258 / 56–6359 / 57–6660 / 57–6661 / 58–6660 / 57–6758 / 57–6658 / 56–6458 / 56–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 865 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (919 records in those cells; 6 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1121:1892 (33.925, -85.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -24.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -7.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 865 distinct grid cells holding 919 of the 925 in-range records (6 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1121:1892 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.00_-85.625, lapse-corrected +67 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 340 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeIllinois, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay · introduced: Mauritius, Réunion, Transcaucasus, India, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker38.665, -77.205 · in the densest population, 487 records (29% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1671 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 919 of them in the land cells it reads, of 925 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 967 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2301 km away. 149 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 746 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1671 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Chamaecrista nictitans, photograph 1did not loadChamaecrista nictitans, photograph 2did not loadChamaecrista nictitans, photograph 3did not loadChamaecrista nictitans, photograph 4did not loadChamaecrista nictitans, photograph 5did not loadChamaecrista nictitans, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Joey Parsons, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Geranium carolinianum Geranium carolinianum Carolina crane's-bill Photo: CC0, author not statedRuellia caroliniensis Ruellia caroliniensis Carolina wild petunia Photo: CC BY, portulacaFothergilla gardenii Fothergilla gardenii Dwarf witch-alder Photo: CC0, author not statedVaccinium tenellum Vaccinium tenellum Southern blueberry Photo: CC0, author not statedViola primulifolia Viola primulifolia Primrose-leaf violet Photo: CC0, author not statedDichanthelium laxiflorum Dichanthelium laxiflorum Soft-tuft panic grass Photo: CC BY, Anne Parker

Other Chamaecrista 11 in the reference

Chamaecrista absus Chamaecrista absus Tropical sensitive pea Photo: CC BY, Robert TaylorChamaecrista desvauxii Chamaecrista desvauxii Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Connor Connolly-MoylsChamaecrista ensiformis Chamaecrista ensiformis Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Diogo LuizChamaecrista fasciculata Chamaecrista fasciculata Showy partridge-pea Photo: CC BY, Paul RootsChamaecrista garambiensis Chamaecrista garambiensis Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Min-Hsuan NIChamaecrista glandulosa Chamaecrista glandulosa Jamaican broom Photo: CC BY-SA, Oscar C. González MartínezChamaecrista greggii Chamaecrista greggii Gregg's sensitive pea Photo: CC BY, Cody HinchliffChamaecrista mimosoides Chamaecrista mimosoides Japanese-tea Photo: CC BY, Hildegard KleinChamaecrista nomame Chamaecrista nomame Field sensitive pea Photo: CC BY, WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁Chamaecrista rotundifolia Chamaecrista rotundifolia Roundleaf sensitive pea Photo: CC BY, geosesarmaChamaecrista serpens Chamaecrista serpens Slender sensitive pea Photo: CC BY, Daniel McNair

Names & registers

Also known as Cassia mimosoides; Cassia nictidans; Cassia nictitans; Cassia nictitans var. conmixta; Chamaecrista millspaughii and 3 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(L.) Moench
Native to
Illinois, Kansas, Missouri +73
Wild records
1671 in range · 967 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 42 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (37 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.00_-85.625, lapse-corrected +67 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 226 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…