Slender Lespedeza

Description

Lespedeza virginica, commonly known as Slender Lespedeza or Slender Bush Clover, is a native perennial legume with pink blooms.

Bees, flies, small butterflies, and skippers enjoy the flowers. These insects seek nectar, although the bees also collect pollen. Among these visitors, bees are probably the most effective pollinators of the flowers.  Bobwhite Quail and Wild Turkey eat the seeds. Mammalian herbivores of all kinds readily feed on Slender Bush Clover, including deer, rabbits, groundhogs, and livestock. It can be difficult to establish this plant where these animals are overpopulated.

Slender bush clover is a nutritious and palatable forage for livestock and other grazing animals. It is considered an excellent component in warm-season grass mixtures, adding protein to the forage and nitrogen to the soil. It is drought resistant.

This plant prefers full or partial sun, and mesic to dry conditions. It grows readily in soil that is loamy, rocky, or sandy and has excellent drought resistance. It’s easy to start plants from seeds or transplants, and foliar disease is rarely troublesome. Soil with below average pH is tolerated, if not actually preferred. Sometimes this plant has trouble competing against taller, more aggressive plants in fertile soil.

Habitats include drier areas of black soil and sandy prairies, hill prairies, rocky upland forests and sandy forests, savannas and sandy savannas, scrubby barrens with poor soil, limestone glades, bluffs, and banks along lakes. Grows well in woodland areas dominated by Oaks. Its ability to fix nitrogen makes it a helpful tool to improve soil fertility in drier areas.

This species is commonly used in the following mixes: Dry’n Rocky Mix

Videos and Articles About This Plant

To learn more about this plant, check out our videos about it and its uses.

Dry ‘n Rocky | Native Wildflower Mix

Lespedezas: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly