Bougainvillea
(also known as Napoleón (Honduras), veranera (Colombia, Nicaragua, El Salvador,
Costa Rica and Panama), trinitaria (Colombia, Cuba, Panama, Puerto Rico,
Dominican Republic & Venezuela), Santa Rita (Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay
and Uruguay) or papelillo (northern Peru)) is a genus of flowering plants
native to South America from Brazil west to Perú and south to southern Argentina
(Chubut Province). Different authors accept between four and 18 species in the
genus. They are thorny, woody vines growing anywhere from 1 to 12 metres (3 ft
3 in to 39 ft 4 in) tall, scrambling over other plants with their spiky thorns.
The thorns are tipped with a black, waxy substance. They are evergreen where
rainfall occurs all year, or deciduous if there is a dry season. The leaves are
alternate, simple ovate-acuminate, 4–13 cm long and 2–6 cm broad. 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 referred to as "paper flower"
because the bracts are thin and papery. The fruit is a narrow five-lobed
achene.
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