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Crape myrtle
Lagerstroemia indica
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Myrtales Family: Lythraceae Genus: Lagerstroemia Linnaeus
Species
See text

Lagerstroemia (crepe myrtle or crape myrtle) is a genus of about 50 species of deciduous and evergreen trees or large shrubs native to eastern Asia and Australia in the Lythraceae family.

Grown mainly for their flowers, Lagerstroemia have sinewy, fluted stems and branches with bark that sheds each year, giving it a mottled appearance. The leaves are opposite, simple, with entire margins, and vary from 5-20 cm (2-8 in). The leaves provide autumn colour.

Flowers are borne in summer in panicles of crinkled flowers with a crepe-like texture. Colours vary in shades of pink, mauve and white. The fruit is a capsule, green at first, then ripening to black. It opens along six or seven lines, producing teeth much like those of the calyx, and releases numerous small winged seeds.

The timber of some species has been used to manufacture bridges, furniture and railway sleepers.

Lagerstroemia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Endoclita malabaricus.

Selected species

A 12ft (4m) Crape Myrtle in northern Maryland.

The Common Crape-myrtle Lagerstroemia indica, from China and Korea, was introduced to the United States by French botanist Andre Michaux ca. 1790 to Charleston, South Carolina, where it is today a very common ornamental shrub raised and cultivated in South Central United States, and is growing in popularity.

The Giant Crape-myrtle Lagerstroemia speciosa, from tropical India, is a tree which is established only in the warmest areas of the US, such as Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, and surrounding states.

Both species are becoming more prevalent in the home owners landscape designs as well as commercial industries for businesses and municipalities along roadways, highways and byways. They both have become so common it is sometimes almost impossible to tell them apart without laboratory testing.

The genus is named after the Swedish merchant Magnus von Lagerström, who supplied Carolus Linnaeus with plants he collected.

• Lagerstroemia. Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government.
• Flora of China: Lagerstroemia species list
• Flora, The Gardeners' Bible, ABC Publishing, Ultimo, NSW, Australia, 2006

L. indica	Distinctive panicles of crepe textured, crinkled flowers typical ot the genus	Close-up of flowers	Close-up of bark (L. indica)
Close-up of ripened fruit (L. indica)	In full bloom (late-July in Maryland)

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Lagerstroemia indica