Like a lava flow from the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island slowly enveloping houses and cars in its path, this crape myrtle is inexorably encasing the metal porch rails and panels of a business in Jackson, Mississippi.
It’s what happens when food being made in a tree’s leaves gets interrupted as it translocates (moves) downward towards roots. Happens to stones and even tombstones in old cemeteries, too.
If it runs into a part of itself or a similar species, it can actually graft and form a strong bond. Otherwise it simply swells and envelopes.
Felder Rushing's Blog 
The various specie of Ficus do that in a bad way! (I parked my old Buick too close to a Ficus microcarpa ‘Nitida’, and never saw it again!) In my front yard in town, a small coast live oak on the corner was two trees that had grafted together. The larger portion got new foliage and bloomed earlier than the smaller part. It is actually quite common for the species, as well as for valley oak (and probably others as well), because squirrels tend to bury a few or several of their acorns together. They subsequently germinate and grow together. The Arbol del Tule might be multiple trees grafted together as well.
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Looks like crape myrtle revenge!
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crape murdering a railing?
(enjoy your trip to the UK – might bump into ya)
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