A striking type of pink crape myrtle could soon be gracing lawns and gardens in southern Florida because of a chance discovery by Agricultural Research Service scientists.
Commonly called Pride-of-India or queen’s crape myrtle, Lagerstroemia speciosa is a species of crape myrtle native to India and Southeast Asia that has been cultivated as an ornamental in tropical areas worldwide. Dozens of commercial crape myrtle varieties exist, but those of L. speciosa may have the largest, brightest, and most striking flowers of any of them, says Alan W. Meerow, a geneticist at the ARS Subtropical Horticulture Research Station (SHRS) in Miami.
Meerow calls the new release Big Pink and says it will grow to up to 19 feet in 5 years and flower from March through the end of summer—and often into fall. As with other queen’s crape myrtles, it is not as cold hardy as the crape myrtle varieties that are found as far north as Pennsylvania. Its range is limited to southern Florida, but “people who see it are struck by it,” Meerow says.
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