The name comes from French navigator and military commander, Louis Antoine de Bougainville and Philibert Commerçon, a French botanist who were the first Europeans to take note of the plant, in Brazil, in 1768. However German botanist Carl Ludwig Willdenow is credited with this identification.
Many of today's bougainvilleas are the result of interbreeding among only three out of the eighteen South American species recognized by botanists. It is said that there are currently over 300 varieties of bougainvillea around the world.
Description of Bougainvillea
The beautiful Bougainvillea also known as Bougainvilla with its flowers of many colours is a woody shrubby vine with thorns that grows abundantly in semi tropical and tropical regions throughout the world. In regions like the KwaZulu-Natal Coastal region of South Africa, these plants grow anywhere from small plants in planter, in hanging baskets, up walls and in enormous bushes - from 1-12 meters tall, scrambling over other plants with their spiky thorns.
Characteristics of the Bougainvillea
Although they are evergreen where rainfall occurs all year or deciduous if there is a dry season, Bougainvillas can be grown as a container plant as well as in the garden areas.
- Typically multi-trunked or with clumping stems
- it has a spreading, round plant habit
- It climbs by sending out slender arching canes
- Bougainvillea tend to flower all year round in equatorial and tropical regions. Elsewhere, they are seasonal bloomers.
- They grow best in somewhat dry, fertile soil. Bloom cycles are typically four to six weeks.
- Bougainvillea grow best in very bright full sun and with frequent fertilization - the plant requires little water once established.
- Bougainvillas can be grown as a container plant as well as in the garden areas. And they can be cultivated and enjoyed in climates with cold temperatures and grown indoors in greenhouses and sun rooms.
Colorful Petaloid Bracts
Their colorful “flowers” are really bracts, or modified leaves, 1⁄2–2-inch long structures to which
the true flowers are attached at the mid-rib. The true, perfect flowers are small and tubular.
Colourful Ornamental Plant
Bougainvilla is an ornamental plant that is often used in flower beds and hanging baskets. But because of its growth habit and beautiful showy bracts this is a popular plant for landscapes as well. Gardeners enjoy using it in mass plantings, as shrubs or bushes, and as ground cover on banks.
For knockout colour, especially in tropical or subtropical regions, this plant produces showy flowers that are yellow, red, purple, white, cerise or orange in color. Bougainvillas are low-maintenance plants that enjoy direct sunlight. And because they are so low maintenance they are an asset to any garden and a joy to gardeners.
Sources:
University of Texas: Bougainvillea
University of Hawaii: Bougainvillea
Karen Lotter - Karen Lotter is a journalist and writer based in Durban, South Africa. She has written profiles, features, advertising copy, ...
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