Lespedeza

Perennial herbs; shrubs or shrublets; woody rhizomes bearing 1-many virgate, aerial stems. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate; leaflets entire, often mucronate, terminal often longer than lateral ones; stipules often small, persistent. Flowers borne in pairs, each pair subtended by 2 series of bracts, second series usually paired; bracteoles 2, at base of calyx. Calyx campanulate, persistent in fruit, lobes subequal, upper 2 more connate than the others. Petals: vexillum clawed; wings falcate-oblong, free or scarcely adherent to keel; keel obtuse or beaked, not laterally appendaged. Stamens diadelphous; anthers uniform. Ovary 1-ovulate; style filiform, incurved, persistent in fruit; stigma small, terminal. Pod ovate or orbicular, reticulate, indehiscent. Seeds compressed, suborbicular. x= 9, 10, 11 ( polyploidy).