The Queen's Flower

Like it does every year at the beginning of summer, this flowering tree next to my house is now putting some nice color. In the last few years I've noticed that the flowering always peaks right at the solstice. On 2023, 2024 and 2025 I posted similar images to EarthSky Community Photos (#59492, #68193 and #76445) that included the following description:

"The Queen's Flower or Pride of India (Lagerstroemia speciosa) is a beautiful deciduous tree with prolific purple flowers, used commonly as an ornamental plant. Its yearly flowering can be particularly impressive, peaking in the warm months of the northern hemisphere around June or July. It is native to India and has been chosen as the state flower in Maharashtra, but its habitat also includes South East Asia, China and the Philippines. Because of its beauty, its use has now extended to most tropical areas in the world including the Caribbean."

I should add that this year, three days past solstice, the flowering appeared less plentiful than in 2023 and 2024. In 2025 the tree looked a bit subdued because of a recent trimming, and I believe the cause now in 2026 could be drier than usual conditions in Puerto Rico in the last few months, and generally along the Caribbean. I am hopeful that the flowering will increase, but climate forecasts for the next few weeks do not look very promising.

Smartphone camera on Samsung Galaxy A16 5G.

GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) on GNU/Linux. (1) Cropping on the left image to 1,762 x 1,932 from the original at 2,576 x 1,932. (2) Scaling on the right image to 1,440 x 1,932 from the original at 1,920 x 2,576. (3) Blurring of license plate on car using the GIMP clone tool. (4) Slight increase in saturation.