Last week I had a question about a crape myrtle tree. The gentleman lives on the coast and said that the leaves on his crape myrtle looked burned on the edges near the tip and he thought there was some kind of bug eating it. He described the bug as white, roundish, and when he squished it between his fingers, it was kind of gritty and rubbed away to nothing.
After doing a little research I came to the conclusion that the “bug” was actually salt crystals that had been pushed out by the plant and collected at the leaf tips. Crape myrtle trees have a low tolerance for salt, and trees living near the coast struggle with salinity issues from salty sea air. It’s a common problem on the coast, so crape myrtle trees never look as prime near the beach as they do inland, but having said that, even on the coast, they are spectacular in bloom!
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