Lespedeza

Plant Characteristics

Origin:	✈	?

Cultivation

Exposure:	☼	?"?" is not in the list (sun, part-sun, shade, unknown) of allowed values for the "Exposure" property.
Water:	◍	?"?" is not in the list (wet, moist, moderate, dry, less when dormant) of allowed values for the "Water" property.

Scientific Names

Read about Lespedeza in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Lespedeza (D. Lespedez was a Spanish governor of Florida, who aided the botanist Michaux). Leguminosae. Bush Clover. Small shrubs or herbs with pea-shaped flowers in racemes or heads, some of them very ornamental but mostly not showy; one extensively used for forage. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate or rarely 1-foliolate, the Lfts. entire and wanting stipels: calyx-lobes nearly equal, sometimes subulate; anthers usually 9 and 1 : pod short and 1-seeded (and in this differing from Desmodium, which has jointed pods). — Species 40 or more, in N. Amer., Asia and Austral., most of them not known horticulturally. In some of the lespedezas there are 2 kinds of flowers, — petal-bearing and mostly sterile, apetalpus and mostly fertile. There are a number of native lespedezas, usually of dry lands, some of which are offered by dealers in native plants, but they are not very showy and are most in place in natural borders and in amateur collections. These species thrive in light, dry soils. Because of the grayish or brownish color of the foliage, they are sometimes useful in landscape gardening work, and they are hardy, and of easiest culture; perennial. Two or 3 of the oriental species are now becoming popular. L. striata is the Japan clover of the S., and is a valuable forage and green-manure plant. L. bicolor is a low shrub, with small violet-purple flowers, hardy in New England, but little known in culture. The most important ornamental members of the genus thus far well known are L. Sieboldii and L. japonica, which are hardy herbs or sub-shrubs sending up many strong wiry shoots each year, and blooming profusely in Sept. and Oct. Their late bloom is very desirable. All lespedezas are of the easiest cultured wherever hardy. Usually increased by division of the clumps. L. Sieboldii is readily propogated by greenwood cuttings under glass. CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

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Propagation

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Gallery

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Lespedeza. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Lespedeza QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)