Bougainvillea 4023
For 20 years, my next door neighbor has had a huge bloomingh Bougainvillea arching over her front door. For 20 years I've been swearing to take a picture of those flowers. Three weeks ago, her red one had already gone to seed, and there were no more than 10 purple flowers which were also about too fall off. We had just left for our evening walk when I saw that this was now or never. This time I had my phone. The questions was whether or not I could compose what was left to show at least onestill with anthers. And this is it.
Bougainvillea is a genus of thorny ornamental vines, bushes, and trees belonging to the four o' clock family, Nyctaginaceae. It is native to eastern South America, found from Brazil, west to Peru, and south to southern Argentina. Different authors accept from 4 to 22 species in the genus. That's quite a range.
The species grow 1 to 12 metres (3 to 39 ft) tall, scrambling over other plants with their spiky thorns. They are evergreen where rainfall occurs all year, or deciduous if there is a dry season. The actual flower of the plant is small and generally white, but each cluster of three flowers is surrounded by three or six bracts with the bright colours associated with the plant, including pink, magenta, purple, red, orange, white, or yellow. Bougainvillea glabra is sometimes called "paper flower" because its bracts are thin and papery.
Bougainvillea 4023
For 20 years, my next door neighbor has had a huge bloomingh Bougainvillea arching over her front door. For 20 years I've been swearing to take a picture of those flowers. Three weeks ago, her red one had already gone to seed, and there were no more than 10 purple flowers which were also about too fall off. We had just left for our evening walk when I saw that this was now or never. This time I had my phone. The questions was whether or not I could compose what was left to show at least onestill with anthers. And this is it.
Bougainvillea is a genus of thorny ornamental vines, bushes, and trees belonging to the four o' clock family, Nyctaginaceae. It is native to eastern South America, found from Brazil, west to Peru, and south to southern Argentina. Different authors accept from 4 to 22 species in the genus. That's quite a range.
The species grow 1 to 12 metres (3 to 39 ft) tall, scrambling over other plants with their spiky thorns. They are evergreen where rainfall occurs all year, or deciduous if there is a dry season. The actual flower of the plant is small and generally white, but each cluster of three flowers is surrounded by three or six bracts with the bright colours associated with the plant, including pink, magenta, purple, red, orange, white, or yellow. Bougainvillea glabra is sometimes called "paper flower" because its bracts are thin and papery.