Chinese Lespedeza

Plant: Ascending to upright perennial forb, legume, 3-6 ft (1-2 m) tall, with leafy slender stems, often branching in the upper half, with whitish flowers in mid-summer. Dormant brown plants remain standing most of the winter.

Stems: Often gray-green with lines of hairs along the stem.

Leaves: Alternate, crowded and numerous, 3-leaflet leaves, leaflets oblong to linear, 0.4-0.8 in (1-2 cm) long and 0.1-0.3 in (3-8 mm) wide, green above, dense whitish hairy to light gray-green beneath, with a hair-like tip. Petioles hairy, lower petioles 0.2-0.6 in (5-15 mm) long and upper leaves without petioles. Stipules narrowly linear.

Flowers: Jul-Sep. Clusters of 1-3 flowers, white with purple marks (native similar species have pink-purple flowers), shorter than leaves, crowded in upper leaf axils, pea-like, 0.1-0.3 in (4-7 mm) long, calyx hairy, 5-lobed, and shorter than petals.

Fruit and Seeds: Oct-Nov. One-seeded legume pod (clustered in terminal axils and scattered along the stem), flattened and ovate to rounded, 0.12-0.15 in (3-4 mm) long, hairy on margins.

Ecology: Persists in new and older forest openings,

* USDA, NRCS. 2001. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.1 (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA. February 5, 2002.