Appearance
The bark is thin and about 2mm. thick, smooth, pinkish-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. Flowers give way to 6-capsuled, brown dehiscent fruits.
Cultural
In 1983, Hinako Sugiura started a manga series titled "Sarusuberi", after the Japanese name of the plant.Sugiura compared the flowering season of "L. indica", that keeps blooming and dropping flowers at the same time, with the vigor of ukiyo-e art, the setting of the manga.
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