Lagerstroemia indica (crape myrtle, crepeflower) is a species in the Lythraceae family.It is a multi-stemmed, deciduous shrub or tree with a wide spreading, flat topped habit. The bark is smooth, gray and mottled, shedding each year. Leaves also shed each winter, after spectacular color display, and bare branches re-leaf early in the spring; leaves are small, smooth-edged, circular or oval-shaped, and dark green changing to yellow and orange and red in autumn. Flowers, on different trees, are white, pink, mauve, purple or carmine with crimped petals, in panicles up to 9 cm (3 1⁄2 in).