Bougainvillea glabra Comm. Nyctaginaceae (Four-O'clock Family Brazil Bougainvillea

                                      October Photo

Plant Characteristics: Glabrous or only slightly pubescent, with a woody trunk attaining 1 ft. or more in diam. and often growing over buildings in the tropics and warm countries; sts. with stout usually straight spines; lvs. alternate, petioled, oblong-oblanceolate, or ovate-oblong to broadly ovate, 2-4 in. long, acuminate, tapering or wedge shaped at base; fls. mostly scattered on long leafy wand-like branches with elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate bracts 1 in. or more long, subequal to fls. when mature, magenta purple or lighter colored, the pedicels adnate to the midvein of the bracts; tube of perianth usually green, limb 5-6 lobed, rose or yellow; stamens 5-10, included, on unequal filaments; ovary stipitate, style lateral; achene 5 ribbed.

Habitat:  Characteristic porch and arbor vine in warm countries and sometimes grown in greenhouses in the N.  Bloom date not given in Bailey

Name:  Bougainvil-lea; after de Bougainville, 1729-1811, French navigator.  Glaber: glabrous, smooth. (Bailey 15).

General:  Uncommon in the study area, occurring in a few places near the top of the bluffs where it has escaped from cultivation.  Photographed at one mid-bluff location on the path between 23rd St. and Mariners Dr. (my comments).       Originally spelled Buginvillaea but present spelling conserved.  About 13 species of shrubs from South America. (Bailey 357).

Text Ref:  Bailey 357,358.

Photo Ref:  Aug-Sept-Oct 88 # 17,18,19.

Identity: by R. De Ruff.

First Found:  September 1988.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 348.

Plant specimen donated to UC Riverside in 2004.

Last edit 8/7/05.

                                        September Photo