Desmodium gyrans
    n 1: erect tropical Asian shrub whose small lateral leaflets
         rotate on their axes and jerk up and down under the
         influence of sunshine [syn: telegraph plant, semaphore
         plant, Codariocalyx motorius, Desmodium motorium,
         Desmodium gyrans]

Moving \Mov"ing\, a.
   1. Changing place or posture; causing motion or action; as, a
      moving car, or power.
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   2. Exciting movement of the mind or feelings; adapted to move
      the sympathies, passions, or affections; touching;
      pathetic; as, a moving appeal.
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            I sang an old moving story.           --Coleridge.
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   Moving force (Mech.), a force that accelerates, retards, or
      deflects the motion of a body.

   Moving plant (Bot.), a leguminous plant (Desmodium
      gyrans); -- so called because its leaflets have a
      distinct automatic motion.
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Telegraph plant \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.
   [Webster 1913 Suppl.]