Plants That Close at Night

Plants that close at night include a wide range of garden plants, houseplants, trees, shrubs, and legumes that fold their leaves or close their flowers in response to changes in light. This natural behavior, known as nyctinasty, is part of the plant’s daily rhythm.

If you’ve noticed a plant folding its leaves after sunset or closing its blooms in the evening, there is usually no cause for concern. It is a normal response to changing light conditions and part of the plant’s natural growth cycle.

This type of movement is called nastic movement, where plants respond to environmental stimuli such as light and darkness.

In this guide, you’ll find examples of plants that close at night, and learn why they do it and how nyctinastic movement works.

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Below you will find a list of common plants that exhibit flower or leaf closing at night. They demonstrate the different ways plants respond to changing light levels. Some may surprise you!

The plants include true nyctinastic species as well as some plants that have similar light-responsive movements.

Plants with leaves that close at night

Many of the most familiar examples of this behavior involve plants that fold or close their leaves as light levels change over 24 hours.

Oxalis (Oxalis triangularis)

Oxalis (False shamrock) is one of those plants that looks like it’s going to sleep at night, as its leaves close at night. If you want to grow your own, so you can watch this nyctinastic behavior, here’s a guide to growing oxalis.

• Plant type: Flowering perennial
• Night behavior: Leaflets fold downward as light fades and flowers close at night

Purchase an oxalis plant with leaf folding properties here.

Prayer plant (Maranta leuconeura)

Maranta leaves fold vertically at night, resembling hands in prayer. This gives the popular indoor plant its common name “prayer plant”.

• Plant type: Tropical herbaceous perennial
• Night behavior: Leaves fold upward at night and reopen during the day

Shop for prayer plants on Etsy.

Calathea (Calathea spp.)

Calathea plants are often described as “living plants” because their leaves move in response to the light by opening and closing their leaves.

• Plant type: Tropical herbaceous perennial
• Night behavior: Leaves fold upward at night and lower during the day

Buy calathea plants here.

Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris)

The leaves of beans almost appear to be going to sleep as the day draws to an end in your garden. To grow beans in your garden, check out this guide to growing green beans.

• Plant type: Annual legume
• Night behavior: Leaflets fold together after sunset

Examples of leaf-folding beans include common garden beans, soybeans, lima beans, and cowpeas.

Peas (Pisum sativum)

The bedtime routine of leaf-folding in peas isn’t because they are tired; it’s a natural response to reduce exposure during the night. To learn how to plant peas, see my guide to growing garden peas.

• Plant type: Cool-season legume
• Night behavior: Leaves fold slightly overnight

Examples of nyctinastic peas include garden peas, chickpeas, and lentils.

Clover (Trifolium spp.)

Clover leaves show off their playful side by folding up at night as a natural response to changes in light and temperature.

• Plant type: Cover crop
• Night behavior: Leaves fold at night and reopen during the day.

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa)

There is a common misconception that alfalfa leaves close at night in response to water stress. In reality, this movement is part of a natural daily rhythm driven by changes in light and darkness.

• Plant type: Forage legume
• Night behavior: Leaves fold together at night and expand in daylight

Etsy has a variety of alfalfa seeds for sale.

Flowers that close at night

Many annual, perennial, and bulb plants have flowers (with or without leaf folding) that open and close in response to light. Here are some popular examples:

Tulip (Tulipa gesneriana)

Tulip flowers close at night and during cool, cloudy weather, helping protect their pollen and other reproductive structures. They cleverly reopen when conditions improve, making the flowers more accessible to pollinators. See my guide to growing tulips in warm weather here.

• Plant type: Perennial bulb
• Night behavior: Petals close tightly at night and open in daylight or cloudy weather

Shop for tulip bulbs on Etsy.

Crocus (Crocus)

Fun fact: In his book “The Power of Movement in Plants” in 1880, Charles Darwin theorized that the closing of the plant flowers was a defense mechanism to reduce the risks of freezing and prevent heat loss on cold nights. Modern consensus is that this behavior is more related to protecting pollen.

• Plant type: Perennial bulb
• Night behavior: Petals tightly close at night or in overcast weather, and reopen in daylight

See this flower closing in person with your own crocus bulbs from Etsy.

California poppy (Eschscholzia californica)

It is not just at night that California poppy flowers close up. They also do this in cloudy, overcast, and windy weather. Modern botanists believe this may happen to keep the pollen dry.

• Plant type: Herbaceous perennial
• Night behavior: Petals fold up at night, or in cloudy or windy weather, and open in the day

Purchase California poppy seeds here.

Morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea)

The opening of morning glory’s flowers each day acts as a botanical alarm clock, allowing it to greet morning pollinators like bees and butterflies.

• Plant type: Annual or perennial vine
• Night behavior: Trumpet-shaped flowers fold shut at night and reopen at dawn

Plant morning glory seeds in your garden so you can watch them open and close.

Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)

Lotus leaves may adjust their position and angle throughout the day and night in response to light and environmental conditions, but they do not fold shut. The flowers, however, open during the day and close in the evening during their bloom cycle.

• Plant type: Aquatic perennial
• Night behavior: Blossoms close tightly together at night and open at the first light of dawn

Do you have a water feature in your yard? Purchase lotus plants so you can watch their flowers open.

Water lily (Nymphaea)

The closing and opening behavior of water lily flowers helps them to prevent heat loss and allows the flowers to retain core temperatures overnight in cool aquatic environments.

Check out this post for details of my visit to the San Angelo International Water Lily Collection. We were there in the early morning and saw this in practice!

• Plant type: Aquatic herb
• Night behavior: Petals close at night and reopen their blooms during the day

Evening primrose (Oenothera biennis)

Evening primrose follows a different rhythm from many day-opening flowers. Instead of opening in daylight, its blooms open at dusk and remain active through the night, then fade or close the following day. This timing aligns with pollination by sphinx moths and other night-flying insects.

• Plant type: Biennial or perennial (depends on type)
• Night behavior: Flowers open at dusk and close the following day

Does your garden have night pollinators? Shop for evening primrose plants and seeds to attract even more of them.

Plants that open and close with light changes

Some flowers are often included in lists of plants that close at night because their blooms visibly open and close throughout the day. However, not all of them follow the same biological pattern as true nyctinastic flowers.

For example, gazanias and some daisies often close their blooms in low light or cloudy weather and reopen in bright sunshine. Their movement is more strongly tied to changing light conditions than to an internal day and night rhythm, but the effect can look very similar in the garden.

Moss rose (Portulaca grandiflora) – (A light and weather-sensitive flower)

Moss rose is often called the “Eleven O’Clock Flower” because of its light and weather-sensitive behavior, where its flowers often stay shut on cloudy days. They open when the sun reaches a specific angle, and the temperatures warm up.

This feature gives Moss rose a different rhythm from true night-closing plants.

• Plant type: Tender succulent
• Night behavior: Flowers close tightly as light fades or clouds move in, and open widest in bright sunshine.

Purchase moss rose for your garden here.

Trees with night leaf movement

Night leaf movement in trees is observed mainly in members of the legume family.

Mimosa (Albizia julibrissin)

The folding leaf behavior of the mimosa tree is controlled in part by an internal biological clock rather than only by the absence of sunlight. Even when kept in continuous darkness for a time, the leaves may continue to “wake up” and “go to sleep” on their normal daily schedule.

• Plant type: Deciduous flowering tree
• Night behavior: Fern-like leaflets fold at night and reopen in the morning in response to light cycles.

Get a starter mimosa tree for your garden and watch its leaves fold at night.

Plants with rapid movement (touch response)

There is a single well-known example of a plant that responds quickly to touch rather than changes in light or darkness – it is called the “sensitive plant”.

Sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica)

Unlike the other plants in this guide, Mimosa pudica does not fold its leaves in response to the darkness and daylight cycle. Instead, its movement is triggered by touch, making it one of the most dramatic examples of plant movement.

When you touch its fern-like leaves, they quickly fold inward as a defence mechanism.

• Plant type: Herbaceous tropical plant
• Movement type: Rapid touch response (thigmonasty)
• What triggers movement: Physical contact or vibration

Purchase your own sensitive plant and watch this rapid response in action.

Why plants close at night (Nyctinasty explained)

Plants don’t “sleep” in the way animals do, but many respond to changes in light by folding their leaves or closing their flowers. This movement, called nyctinasty, is a natural response to the day and night cycle.

It is thought to help plants reduce water loss, protect sensitive tissues, or prepare for cooler nighttime conditions. As we have seen, many flowers do this to protect their pollen for morning pollinators.

Some plants also display other types of movement responses, but nyctinasty is the one linked to daily light and darkness cycles.

Nyctinastic plants printable

You can print the list of plants that close their leaves and flowers as high-resolution JPGs or PDFs by using the links below:

• Get the high-resolution printable (JPG)↗
• Get the PDF printable (PDF)↗

Printing instructions:

• Select portrait orientation and “fit to page” on your printer settings for a full-page printout.
• You can also print out the nyctinastic plants printable from the project card at the bottom of this page. Scroll down to the card and press “print”.

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Admin note: This list of plants that close their flowers and leaves at night first appeared on the blog in February 2020. This post has been updated with new photos, a printable list of nyctinastic plants, and a slideshow video.

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