The Mimosa pudica, also known as the sensitive plant or touch-me-not, folds its leaves inward when touched as a defensive mechanism to deter predators and environmental conditions. This phenomenon is called thigmonasty and is caused by a stimulus that triggers the release of chemicals from the stem, which force water out of the cells and cause a loss of turgor pressure. This loss of pressure closes the leaves and makes them droop.

A lesson from this plant is to respect personal space. Just as we do not like to be “tickled”, nether does this plant.

During a tickle, the skin’s nerve endings shoot electrical signals to the somatosensory cortex, a part of the brain that processes touch. Meanwhile, the anterior cingulate cortex analyzes these signals as either harmful or playful. But in the back part of the brain, the cerebellum gives you away.

Scientists found being tickled stimulates your hypothalamus, the area of the brain in charge of your emotional reactions, and your fight or flight and pain responses. When you’re tickled, you may be laughing not because you’re having fun, but because you’re having an autonomic emotional response.

If someone else can make you laugh and twitch by poking you in the ribcage, shouldn’t you be able to do the same thing to yourself? The reason you can’t tickle yourself is that when you move a part of your own body, a part of your brain monitors the movement and anticipates the sensations that it will cause.

These plants are succulents (Kalanchoe delagoensis), characterized by the ability to produce tiny plantlets along the edges of its leaves. The main difference is in the shape of the plant’s leaves, with Mother of Thousands having leaves that grow wider and broader. Mother of Millions, on the other hand, has more slender leaves and plantlets growing near the leaf’s end.