Crape myrtle- Sarusuberi

Now the crape myrtle blossom is blooming beautifully and strong. It symbolizes midsummer. It has a myriad of small, cute crape-shaped flowers of pink, red and white.

Crape myrtle is "Sarusuberi" in Japanese which literally means "monkey slip." Funny name. Its trunk surface is so slippy that even monkeys might slip down from the tree. The older it grows, the more slippy it gets.

It has another Japanese name, "Hyakujitsu-ko." It means "red flower blooming for one hundred days." It blooms for a long time under the blazing sun.

The name shows what it is.

I want to be like this flower.