In the section Macrolespedeza winter buds are mainly axillary and consist of about ten to twenty bud-scales (Fig. 33). The bud-scales arc arranged spirally (Fig. 33 BE) in all species of the sect. Macrolespedeza except two species, L. Buergeri (Fig. 33 A) and L. Maximowiczii as pointed out by Momiyama (1933). The outer budscales are hard, ovate, and brownish. The inner ones are also ovate and only the exposed parts are brownish while the hidden parts are greenish and elongate the following spring. The inner bud-scales are sometimes two-lobed or three-lobed. Numerous juvenile normal leaves with three leaflets and two stipules are surround by the bud-scales. In some cases, the intermediate form (having two stipules and rudimentary leaflets) between the inner bud-scales and normal leaves is observed (Fig. 33 C). A small axillary bud is recognizable in the axil of the bud-scale (Fig. 33 B-E). But the axillary bud does not usually elongate.

Nakai (1939) distinguished sect. Heterolespedza, which consists of L. Buergeri Miq. and L. Maximowiczii, from sect. Macrolespedeza based on the difference of phyllotaxy of bud-scales: the phyllotaxy of L. Buergeri (Fig. 33 A) and L. Maximowiczii is distichous, while that of other species is spiral. But except for phyllotaxy the significant characters of bud-sclacs of these two species are not different from those of other species of sect. Macrolespedeza.