Creeping lespedeza

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Creeping lespedeza fruit

Creeping lespedeza

Creeping lespedeza leaves

Creeping lespedeza

Creeping lespedeza

Creeping lespedeza leaves

Morphology

Stem

Usually prostrate or decumbent, sometimes weakly ascending, much-branched, strigose.

Leaves

Alternate, odd-pinnately compound; petiole .12 to .4 inch; stipules .08 to .16 inch; leaflets 3; leaflet blade obovate to elliptic or oblong, .3 to .85 inch long, .2 to .6 inch wide, base rounded to truncate, apex rounded to acute, mucronate, margins entire, surfaces strigose or adaxial glabrous.

Inflorescence

Racemes, spherical to cylindric, 4-8(-12)-flowered, much longer than subtending leaves.

Flower

Chasmogamous flowers papilionaceous: calyx campanulate, .12 to .24 inch, shorter than fruit; corolla .2 to .28 inch, pink to purple, banner with dark purple base; petals 5; wings as long as or slightly longer than keel; stamens 10, diadelphous. Cleistogamous flowers: sepals 1/4 to 1/3 as long as fruits.

Fruit

Legumes, elliptic to ovate, .16 to .24 inch, strongly flattened in cross section, enclosed in or prominently larger than persistent calyx; seeds olive to brown, reniform to elliptic, .08 to .12 inch, somewhat flattened, smooth.

Ecology

Habitat

Tallgrass prairies, glades, oak-hickory and post oak-black jack oak woodlands

Distribution

East 1/3 of Kansas

Additional Notes