crape

That’s the sound of shade tree advocates unhappy that I’m mentioning crape myrtles in this list.

Tree varieties include Eureka lemon, pink guava, Golden Delicious apple, coast live oak, olive, crape myrtle, California sycamore, desert willow and torrey pines.

They also claimed the crape myrtles would provide similar amounts of shade and noise reduction.

The crape myrtle bark scale has crept into the D.C. region in recent years.

While their leafy cousins parade their fabulous colors this month, the future for crape myrtles across the region — and beyond — is decidedly gray.