Crepe Myrtle or Ficus ?

[perkylzd]

Several years ago I received a tree/plant as a home warming. The giver stated that it was a tree with purple flowers. It was planted in 2008 and has really been growing. After a lot of research, we thought it was possibly a Queen Crape (Crepé) Myrtle but not really too sure at this point. The leaves look like the photos I've found and has been producing small kernels shaped almost like a small nut. In the fall of 08 three bottom limbs were removed to promote top growth and so far has worked. The kernels on the other hand start out green turn red as they get larger then very deep deep red/purple. But no blooms nor any other production such as flowers. The trunk is grayish in color and also puts out what looks like a root (suckers) coming out of the side at times. I have been pinching those off. The leaves appear as in the pictures I've seen. The leaves are not dull but not shiny either. My fear is that it is not a Crepe Myrtle at all but rather a Ficus. Can anyone tell if I were to post a photo? I hate to hack it down and find out it was a CM. I can wait until next spring (2011) or so before it gets too out of hand to cut down if it is a Ficus. I really do like it and it really provides shade to my front window (hottest side of the house). Unfortunately if it is a ficus, I don't want it to get into my water or sewer lines in the future. One more important thing - our winter this year in Fla was really cold and yet it did not drop a leaf! Hope someone can help shed a light! Thank you for reading!

[rainbowgardener]

It would really help if you post a couple pictures, including a close up of the leaves.

Here's the instructions for how to do that:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3724

[bullthistle]

Without posting a picture I will presume it's not a crape because it's bark is a mottled brown which it sheds during the year.

[perkylzd]

Thank you 'rainbowgardener' and 'bullthistle' for your responses and especially how to post up the photos.

I'm really hoping this isn't a ficus!!! It'll stay till at least the winter anyway - the sun is too hot in the summer. Anyway, hopefully I can figure out what it is before hand or it will bloom and solve the problem!

The berries (nuts) start small and green, then turn reddish and continue to turn darker and darker almost deep purple. Couldn't get a shot of the dark purple though.

[img]https://i874.photobucket.com/albums/ab305/perkylzd/THE%20TREE/100_0355.jpg[/img]

Close up of trunk and sucker?
[img]https://i874.photobucket.com/albums/ab305/perkylzd/THE%20TREE/100_0370-1.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i874.photobucket.com/albums/ab305/perkylzd/THE%20TREE/100_0365.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i874.photobucket.com/albums/ab305/perkylzd/THE%20TREE/100_0366.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i874.photobucket.com/albums/ab305/perkylzd/THE%20TREE/100_0372.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i874.photobucket.com/albums/ab305/perkylzd/THE%20TREE/100_0363.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i874.photobucket.com/albums/ab305/perkylzd/THE%20TREE/100_0362.jpg[/img][/I]

[DankyDoo]

I don't think it is a crape myrtle because they don't make berries they make little seed pods that kind of look like berries and the leaves arent that smooth and shiny.The trunks of a crape are usually diff then that also . I would think it is some sort of ficus

[rainbowgardener]

Are ficus and crepe myrtle the only choices? I don't think either one of them makes berries that turn purple. Ficus is a variety of fig... their berries are related to figs, so they turn from green to beige. The crepe myrtle berries turn red-orange and then brown.

I think it is something else.

[perkylzd]

Thank you for your input Dankydoo and Rainbowgardner!

I'm thinking the same thing. Perhaps it's something else altogether!
I pulled one of the berries off last night. It was deep deep purple-red.
No fruity smell to it and not very large. The leaves are shaped like some of the ficus in our area but they are much larger in length and width.

Hope to get it identified. I'm wondering now when they said it had purple flowers (which it hasn't produced yet) he meant purple berries. I see a potential mess on my nearby sidewalk!

Give a holler if anyone has any ideas what it could be.

Thank you everyone.

[thanrose]

Absolutely not crepe myrtle.

The bark and the leaves look like something in the Ficus family, but I don't know this particular one. It might be Ficus microcarpa, but that's only a guess.

The fruit on a ficus can be any color ranging from green to yellow then to orange, red, purple, and black. There would be an absence of obvious flowers, because the budding fruit is the flower sort of inside out. Not all ficus will have fruit that looks just like the figs we find seasonally at the grocers, but botanists would see the similarities. If you are so inclined, slice one fruit cleanly in half and see if the pulp is thready looking in places. I don't know what all the species' seeds look like, but of the half dozen ficus spp I know, they all have tiny round seeds as you would find in Fig Newtons, but only in very mature fruit. If the seed/s are more substantial, then it's probably not a fig.

The aerial roots are also typical of the Ficus family of some 800 known species.

Something else to look for is a milky sap. Break off a newer leaf or twig, and if the sap is white rather than clear, that's another trait common to ficus. Of course, other plants have white sap, too. (In fact your leaves look something like milkweed leaves... but that's small and shrubby and often herbaceous: definitely not what you have here.)

[perkylzd]

Thank you Thanrose! I think you nailed it. It looks exactly like it.
Too bad it is very pretty in the yard. But whew - there is no room in this yard for that size tree if it grows to 50'. Yikes.

Thank you very much for your help! And thank you to every one!!!