Lespedeza capitata Culture
Answered by: Inge Poot
Question from: Lea Sikora
Posted on: March 19, 2001

Do you have more growing information regarding Lespedeza capitata than provided in the catalogue? I have not been able to find any information on this plant other than what is listed by you. Do you have a picture of the plant that you would be able to scan and email? - and information on the special treatment required for germination.

The plant is described in Hortus Third and in the second volume of Britton and Brown’s "An Illustrated Flora of Northern United States and Canada". Ther is a line drawing in the latter book, but my computer terminal does not have facilities for scanning and then e-mailing the picture. Britton and Brown describe the plant as 60 to 165 centimeters tall and stiffly erect. The leaflets of the plant are held stiffly upright and each leaf consists of three narrow leaflets. The flowers are yellowish white with a purple spot and they are crowded into heads at the top of the plant.

The plant grows in dry fields fron Ontario to Florida and west from Minnesota to Louisiana. Hortus advises that the plant will grow in any upland soil and that the seed should be sown outdoors as soon as you can get into the soil. This usually means that germination is helped by freezing and thawing cycles occurring naturally out of doors in the spring.

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