Crape myrtle, one of the signature flowers of summer, is now in full bloom along the sidewalk on the Imperial Palace side of the Palaceside Building. Some 50 trees line the roughly 200-meter stretch, their lovely red, purple, pink and white blossoms coloring the season.
The tree's Japanese name, sarusuberi -- "monkey slip" -- comes from its trunk: the bark peels easily, leaving the surface so smooth that, it is said, even monkeys cannot climb it. It has another name as well: hyakujitsuko, or "hundred days of crimson." Once it starts flowering, its blooming season is long, lasting some 100 days from around July through September -- hence the name. Of course, no single flower blooms for three months. After one flower blooms and falls, new ones open on the same tree one after another, so it seems to stay in bloom the whole time.
Falling, then blooming; falling, then blooming again -- the crape myrtle (a haiku by Kaga no Chiyojo)