‘Fenjiao’: A New Lagerstroemia Cultivar with Purple-red Flowers

widely distributed globally, from tropical to warm temperate regions, with China being an important center for their distribution and cultivation (Zhou et al. 2023).Many Lagerstroemia species exhibit a wide range of bright flower colors and unique flower patterns, including white, red, pink, purple, violet, and composite flowers, making them highly valuable for garden design and landscaping applications (Hong et al. 2022; Yu et al. 2024).Since the 1960s, Zhang et al. have been investigating and hybridizing Lagerstroemia plants in China, successfully cultivating more than 200 varieties with diverse plant structures and flower colors (Wang et al. 2013).Flower color is an important ornamental feature of plants, not only attracting insects for pollination but also significantly influencing the ornamental value and quality of plants.Breeding excellent Lagerstroemia varieties with diverse flower colors is of great importance.'Fenjiao' was selected and released by the Institute of Botany, Jiangsu Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences (Nanjing Botanical Garden Mem.Sun Yat-Sen).This cultivar has gained much attention