Lespedeza juncea Pers.

A semi-woody plant in this country, sending up annually from a woody root-stock a crowd of slender, grooved stems 2 to 3 ft high, clad with whitish hairs. Leaves trifoliolate, with a slender main-stalk 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. long; leaflets oblanceolate, 1⁄3 to 3⁄4 in. long, broadest near the apex, where they are 1⁄12 to 1⁄8 in. wide and short-pointed, tapering thence to a short stalk, covered beneath with fine grey hairs. Flowers in very short-stalked, two- to six-flowered umbels, produced from the leaf-axils; each flower 1⁄4 to 1⁄3 in. long, white or partly blue; the calyx half as long, hairy, with slender, linear lobes.

Native of the Himalaya, China, Japan, and Siberia; introduced to Kew in 1895. It is not a showy plant, but distinct and striking for its long slender stems of rather broom-like appearance, very densely clothed with the erect, rather appressed leaves. It flowers in September.

L. sericea (Thunb.) Miq., not L. sericea (Wall.) Benth., nom. nud. Hedysarum sericeum Thunb.; L. cuneata (Dum.-Cours.) G. Don; Anthyllis cuneata Dum.-Cours.; L. juncea var. cuneata (Dum.-Cours.) Bean – Leaflets narrowly oblanceolate, 3⁄8 to 7⁄8 in. long, truncate or retuse at the apex. Flowers whitish. Of no decorative value, but used as a fodder plant in the warmer parts of the world.