Sensitive and Partridge Peas

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. Unlike the related genera Cassia and Senna, members of Chamaecrista form root nodules.

Chamaecrista has 367 species, with a wide distribution – the Americas from Minnesota to northern Argentina, sub-Saharan Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Iran, the Indian Subcontinent, Indochina, China, Korea, Japan, Malesia, New Guinea, and Australia.