Lespedeza frutescens(L.) Hornem.

shrubby lespedeza

WFO wfo-0000166792 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Lespedeza frutescens, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. a Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-02 / obs. 204294381
Lespedeza frutescens, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. b Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159088171
Lespedeza frutescens, photographed by Tom Field
fig. c Tom Field, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 169668048
Lespedeza frutescens, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. d Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148646334
Lespedeza frutescens, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. e Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 139378903
Lespedeza frutescens, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. f Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 137303675
Lespedeza frutescens, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. g Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 134731825
Lespedeza frutescens, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. h Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 127738237

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 26 botanical countries

Regions where Lespedeza frutescens is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin AlabamaArkansasFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMichiganMississippiMissouriNew YorkNorth CarolinaOhioOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin
Native distribution of Lespedeza frutescens, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maine MAI
Maryland MRY
Michigan MIC
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 645 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -8.9 °C -4.8 °C 0.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.1 °C 30.6 °C 32.6 °C
Annual rainfall 918 mm 1,110 mm 1,333 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 102 mm 197 mm 279 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 645 research-grade observations of Lespedeza frutescens that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 4 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Hedysarum frutescens L.
  • Lespedeza divergens Pursh
  • Lespedeza frutescens var. acutifructa Farw.
  • Lespedeza sessiliflora Nutt.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol LEFR5. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.