Question for Iris, or other botanical name know-hows (:

What is the botanical name for a dwarf crape myrtle? I can't seem to find it.

It has pink flowers and all I can come up with is Lagerstroemia Indica....but I thought that was the name for full size trees. Don't dwarf trees have their own unique botanical name?

Thanks in advance for your help!!!
Have a great week!!!
Sam

Sam Ogranaja wrote:What is the botanical name for a dwarf crape myrtle? I can't seem to find it.

It has pink flowers and all I can come up with is Lagerstroemia Indica....but I thought that was the name for full size trees. Don't dwarf trees have their own unique botanical name?

Thanks in advance for your help!!!
Have a great week!!!
Sam

A dwarf that originated from L. indica will still be L. indica...but it will have a cultivar name as well. For instance, Sharp's Pygmy is a dwarf form of Japanese maple. It's botanical name is Acer palmatum "Sharp's Pygmy".

There are six Dwarf Upright varieties and a couple of small dwarf varieties along with their names and photo's about two thirds of the way down this page

Thanks to Kev and Dave.

You guys ROCK!!!

Have a great week!!!
Sam

Dirr says, "The number of (Lagerstroemia) cultivars is staggering." For basic L. Indica (and other Lagerstroemia species and a long list of cultivars) see: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mg266 .

Dirr himself lists 4 pages of cultivars.

Interesting, years ago in the early 80's I bought a "watermelon red" and a rich purple / lavender, gallon size, crepe myrtles.
The lavender, I have shown here in bloom [ Thanks Jim L.].

After all these years the watermelon is still under 4'.
I also have an unknown pink I bought in Florence, as a standard, chopped down, gave away as a gift, got it back as the person stopped growing bonsai.

Trouble is in our climate, myrtles, tend to drop leaves and are more or less unmanageable, as bonsai. They are however old shrubs as I believe, they may originally have come from China or India, back in the 1920"s or so. Full range from white to deep purples. They don't seem have any problems save for the once in a while leaf cutting ant attack.
Beautiful shrubs!!
Later.
Khaimraj

Dave Murphy wrote:

Sam Ogranaja wrote:What is the botanical name for a dwarf crape myrtle? I can't seem to find it.

It has pink flowers and all I can come up with is Lagerstroemia Indica....but I thought that was the name for full size trees. Don't dwarf trees have their own unique botanical name?

Thanks in advance for your help!!!
Have a great week!!!
Sam

A dwarf that originated from L. indica will still be L. indica...but it will have a cultivar name as well.  For instance, Sharp's Pygmy is a dwarf form of Japanese maple.  It's botanical name is Acer palmatum "Sharp's Pygmy".

Since we're being technical, it's actually Acer palmatum 'Sharp's Pygmy', the cultivar being in single quotes. And Sam, the crape myrtle would indeed be Lagerstroemia indica 'whatever' if it's an indica, or Lagerstroemia x 'whatever' as in the case of a hybrid between indica and fauriei like Lagerstroemia x 'Natchez'.

You have your answer. The older and larger crape myrtles are Lagerstroemia indica. The dwarfs and many other new hybrids are Lagerstroemia indica x fauriei. In modern usage, the times sign is not used in front of cultivar names. It would be helpful if you could go back to your supplier & get the cultivar name.
Iris

Yes, but you still see the "x" quite often in literature, so I used it.