This species was introduced into Indiana as a forage crop about 1925 and has freely escaped to roadsides and open woodland in some of the southern counties.

Much like no. 14 [Lespedeza striata (Thunb.) Hook. & Arn.]; stems 1-6 dm, sparsely pubescent with ascending or erect appressed hairs; petioles 2-10 mm; lfls broadly obovate, two-thirds as wide as long, or wider; spikes in the upper axils, dense, leafy, 1-2 cm; cal-tube 1 mm, its lobes ovate, equaling the tube; fr oval or obovate, 3 mm, strongly reticulate; 2n=20. Native of e. Asia, intr. as a forage plant, and becoming naturalized as a weed from N.J. and Va. to Ind. and Mo. and southward. Summer.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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