Lespedeza hirta |
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hairy bush-clover, hairy bush-clover or lespedeza, hairy lespedeza |
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Habit | Herbs. | ||||
Stems | erect or ascending, 80–200 cm, branched distally, short appressed-pubescent, pilose, or villous. |
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Leaves | stipules subulate to narrowly triangular, 3–6 mm; petiole 10–15(–20) mm, longer than rachis; leaflet blades ovate-elliptic, obovate, or rounded, apex obtuse or retuse, minutely apiculate, surfaces green, cinereous, or silvery abaxially, sparsely to densely sericeous abaxially, glabrous, sericeous, pilose, or silvery with fine, dense, appressed-silky hairs adaxially; terminal blade 10–40(–50) × (7–)10–30 mm, length 1.3–1.8 times width. |
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Racemes | 10–40-flowered, axillary from distal leaves or clustered in compound inflorescences, flowers compact to lax, axis and pedicels visible, flowers chasmogamous and cleistogamous. |
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Peduncles | longer than subtending leaves. |
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Pedicels | 1–2 mm; bracteoles longer than calyx tube. |
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Flowers | chasmogamous 7–10 mm; calyx 7–10 mm, pubescent, tube 1–2 mm; lobes 5, lateral narrowly triangular, 7–8 mm, apices spinelike; corolla cream-white or creamy with pink or purple at throat; wings 6–7 mm; keel 5–6 mm. |
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Loments | chasmogamous slightly included in calyx, ovate-oblong, 6–8 × 4–5 mm, cleistogamous slightly included in calyx, oblong, 6 × 4 mm; stipe subsessile. |
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Lespedeza hirta |
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Distribution |
North America
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Discussion | Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora). Lespedeza hirta forms natural hybrids with L. angustifolia, L. capitata, L. frutescens, L. procumbens, L. repens, L. stuevei, L. violacea, and L. virginica. Hybrids with L. violacea have been called L. × nuttallii Darlington, and offspring from Indiana plants of L. × nuttallii show morphologies that range from one parental species to the other. Other purple-petaled species may hybridize with L. hirta to produce offspring similar to the morphology of L. × nuttallii (D. Isely 1998). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 11. | ||||
Parent taxa | Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Lespedeza | ||||
Sibling taxa | |||||
Subordinate taxa | |||||
Synonyms | Hedysarum hirtum | ||||
Name authority | (Linnaeus) Hornemann: Hort. Bot. Hafn. 2: 699. (1815) | ||||
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