Lespedeza cuneata

Lespedeza cuneata is an erect, herbaceous to semi-woody perennial legume in the family Fabaceae, native to eastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea, the Russian Far East, and the Himalayas) and widely naturalized — often invasively — in the southeastern and central United States. Plants typically grow 0.5–1.5 m tall, with slender, ridged, ascending stems that branch in the upper portion and become woody at the base. The leaves are alternate and trifoliolate; leaflets are narrowly oblanceolate to cuneate, 1–2.5 cm long, with a small abrupt mucro at the truncate apex and dense appressed silvery hairs on the lower surface. Small pea-like flowers, 5–8 mm long, are clustered in leaf axils; chasmogamous flowers are creamy white with purple to violet markings on the standard, while inconspicuous cleistogamous flowers also produce seed. The fruit is a one-seeded, ovate, flattened pod about 3 mm long. The plant favours disturbed ground, roadsides, old fields, and prairies on a range of soil types.