Round-headed Bushclover, Lespedeza capitata, Minnesota native wildflowers, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	Round-headed Bushclover	Lespedeza capitata Michx.	Pea	Upland	Late Summer to Autumn
Other names and notes	(Round-headed Lespedeza)This is an erect perennial of prairies and open woods that grows 2 to 4' high. It is usually un-branched and has many fine hairs. The flowers are cream color with a pink throat and appear in rounded cluster from the leaf axils. The flowers are small, 3/8" long, not stalked and tightly fill the cluster. They mature to dark brown. The leaves. like most clovers, are three parted, oval and point upward and on short stalks.


Above: The single stem plant with upward pointing leaflets.	Above: Flower cluster detail. Photo ©Merel R. Black, Freckmann Herbarium, University of Wisconsin, Steven's Point

Notes: The plant is found in the United States from the Great Plains eastward. In Minnesota it is native and found in counties of the southern 2/3rds of the state with a few scattered exceptions - principally near the Dakota border. Eloise Butler recorded it's presence in the Garden on Sept. 6, 1907. It was also present on Martha Crone's 1951 Garden Census.

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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

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