Bougainvillea

• Authority

  Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro. 2005. Vines and climbing plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 51: 1-483.

• Family

  Nyctaginaceae

• Scientific Name

  Bougainvillea

• Description

  Description - Scandent or less frequently erect shrubs or small trees, usually with axillary spines. Leaves alternate or subopposite. simple; petioles slender; stipules absent. Flowers bisexual, in axillary dichasial cymes, with 3 flowers, each of which is subtended by 1 brilliantly colored foliaceous bract. Perianth tubular, consisting only of the calyx, with small imbricate lobes; stamens 5-8(10), included; ovary superior, stipitate, fusiform, the stigma unilateral. Fruit a fusiform anthocarp with 5 longitudinal ribs, not glandular. A genus of about 18 species, native to South America, cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics.