Crape Myrtle Trees Lagerstroemia indica

Field Guide: Crape Myrtle Trees

With an extraordinarily long bloom time (from 60 to 120 days), Crape Myrtle is a show stopping specimen tree or shrub, especially since it has four season interest with attractive seed heads, fall color, and distinctive bark.

Hybridizers at the U.S. National Arboretum have been working to improve crape myrtles, making them more mildew and disease resistant as well as hardier. The most successful cultivars are the result of crosses of L. indica, the most common species in the U.S., with L. fauriei, a species with striking red-brown trunks introduced from Japan. The showy bark of crape myrtle is enhanced by an underplanting of an evergreen ground cover such as liriope, ajuga, euonymus, or juniper.