Earlier
in our trip we saw a lot of trees we started calling “Naked Trees’. They had no apparent bark. There really weren’t any leaves or blooms at
that time and we weren’t familiar with the type.
Turns
out they were crepe myrtles (also spelled crapemyrtle). They are big in the South. They are bright
(can be any color but mostly pink or white) and have long lasting blooms. We see them everywhere, occasionally with
Spanish moss hanging from the branches.
The Japanese name for them translates as “monkey slip”, referring to the
smooth slippery bark.
One
long section of road between Montecello and Tallahassee had these trees planted all
along the sides of the road for 25 miles. Turns out
this was a Depression-era road beautification program with thousands of trees
planted by workers earning 30 cents an hour.
I tried to get a picture of this, but it’s hard to get the sense of
these blooming trees running for miles.
They
are pretty, but in my mind they are still naked!
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