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Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
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'Lespedeza cyrtobotrya' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
A small deciduous shrub, which in this country sends up from the base every summer a number of erect, woody stems 2 to 3 ft high, that do not survive the winter, but die back to ground-level; bark downy. Leaves trifoliolate, 3 to 5 in. long; leaflets 1 to 13⁄4 in. long, 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. wide, oval or obovate, covered beneath with a fine down especially early in the season, apex rounded or slightly notched, the midrib ending in a short bristle; base tapered. Flowers crowded in umbellike racemes 11⁄2 in. long, which spring from the axils of the upper leaves of the shoot, rosy-purple, 1⁄2 to 5⁄8 in. long. Calyx-teeth spine-tipped. Pods ovate, 1⁄4 in. long, one-seeded.
Native of Japan and Korea; introduced to Kew in 1899. It is a pretty plant scarcely known in cultivation, and blossoms in August.
This species, which is rare in cultivation, was reintroduced to Kew from South Korea in 1982 (B.E. & C. 178). The seed was gathered from plants about 5 ft high, growing in full sun in acid sand or gravel.