The crape myrtle, one of the few woody species blooming during the summer heat of Seville, it has a trunk of smooth, polished and shiny bark that gives a powerful aesthetic force. Its attractive pink flowers clustered in dense spikes give this deciduous small tree a superb ornamental value. It is said that when a bunch of these flowers are sent to your beloved one you are thanking the kindness with which he accepted the mutual love. This symbolism is possibly explained in the nature of the lagerstroemia trees, which are not attacked by any insect.

The genus spread from China through India and came to the Mediterranean countries in the mid-eighteenth century. For those years, specifically in 1753, the Swedish Charles Linnaeus (1707-1778), published a book that opens the qualifying method of modern botany, Species Plantarum. The scientific name of the crape myrtle is dedicated precisely to a botanist friend of Linnaeus, Carl Magnus von Lagerström.

However, the legend tells that this tree was first brought from China to Europe centuries ago by the great explorer Marco Polo (c.1254-1324), when in that country ruled the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan and that the Venetian could reach via the Silk Road.

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