Chennai's prolific bloomers - Perfect in Purple (Lagerstroemia speciosa)

I turned around a corner and was greeted by this profusion of purple bursting out of someone's garden. City trees have to deal with so much - apart from the usual fight for space and sunlight the boughs of this one had to contend with the wires/cables passing through!!
The flowers of this tree, called the Queen's crepe myrtle/Pride of India have always filled me with awe with their perfectly symmetrical six petals. They have a crinkled appearance and bloom in racemes, forming a really pretty picture.












I picked one up from the ground and put it in a bowl of water - take a look at the little beauty below. The sun made the color look so much lighter in my pictures.