Telegraph plant Bot., A tick trefoil (Meibomia gyrans formerly Desmodium gyrans), native of the East Indies; it is a leguminous plant whose lateral leaflets jerk up and down like the arms of a semaphore, and also rotate on their axes.
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telegraph plant
n : erect tropical Asian shrub whose small lateral leaflets
rotate on their axes and jerk up and down under the
influence of sunshine [syn: semaphore plant, Codariocalyx
motorius, Desmodium motorium, Desmodium gyrans]