Climber with thick spines. Branches soft-hairy. Leaves ovate to elliptic, densely soft-hairy below. Bracts 2-4.5 cm long. Perianth with long, soft hairs, spreading laterally and more or less straight. Fruit densely hairy.
Brazil.
INTRODUCTION: European collections of this species were probably first made at Rio de Janeiro (between 13 June 1767 and 15 July 1767) on the French Bougainville expedition to the Pacific when Philibert Commerçon (1727-1773) was the accompanying and first professional naturalist paid for by a soverieign, Louis XV. Commerçon was acompanied on the Etoile by his servant-assistant Jeanne Baret (a woman dressed as a man, and probably the first woman to circumnavigate the globe). It was these specimens that were described by German botanist Carl Willdenow (mentor of Alexander von Humboldt) at the Botanical Garden of Berlin. Further collections, now held at the National Herbarium of Victoria, and possiby made by Banks himself, were made when Cook's Endeavour stood off Rio from 13 November to 7 December 1768. Its first introduction to cutivation is disputed but probably occurred in England in 1829 (Lack 2012).
Lack, W.H. (2012). The discovery, naming and typification of Bougainville spectabilis (Nyctaginaceae. Willdenowia 42: 117-126.
Source: (1997). Nyctaginaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Alba'
Bracts pure white.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Badgen's Beauty'
Leaves dark green, glossy. Bracts large, rich purple, numerous.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Barbara Karst'
Bracts red and extending along the branches.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Blondie'
Leaves pale green, the young ones reddish. Bracts pale gold to orange fading to pale pink.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Donyo'
Bracts orange-pink
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Elizabeth'
Bracts copper at first becoming magenta to red; flower cream.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Gloucester Royal'
New growth purplish. Bracts deep red.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Harlequin'
Bud sport of 'Snow Cap', the leaves large with a central blotch of gold.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Harrissii'
(B. glabra 'Variegata') a variegated bud sport of 'Sanderiana' with pale purple bracts.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Hawaiian Gold'
Bracts golden at first becoming suffused with pink.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Killie Campbell'
Pendulous branches, the bracts ruffled changing from copper to red and magenta.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Klong Fire'
Semi-dwarf. Bracts double, red, in repeated flushes.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Limberlost Beauty'
Bracts double, white with magenta tips.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Little Caroline'
Bracts twisted, orange-red.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Louis Wathen'
Bracts roundish, orange, fading to rose-pink.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Magnifica'
Bracts more or less bright magenta; flowers white, long-lasting. Leaves glossy green. ['Magnifica Trailii', var. trailii]
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Mistress Columbine'
Variegated bud sport of 'Mrs Butt'. Leaves goldish with a central green blotch. Bracts red.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Mrs Butt'
A natural and robust hybrid between B. peruviana and B. glabra first discovered in 1910. Bracts red.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Pagoda Pink'
Bracts pink, double, in recurring flushes. ['Miss Philippine', 'Pink Champagne', 'Pink Delight', 'Tahitian Maid']
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Penelope'
Bud sport of 'Snow Cap'. Bracts white with ruffled margins, often faintly pink.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Pride Of Singapore'
Seedling of 'Penang' Bracts small, bright purple with a pointed tip, edges slightly wavy.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Raspberry Ice'
Leaves with creamy margins and grey central blotch. New growth reddish. Bracts red.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Rosenka'
Bud sport of 'Poultoni'. Bracts with wavy margins changing from orange to pink.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Sanderiana'
Vigorous; bracts deep purple with green veins; thorns many, long, curved.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Scarlet Glory'
Bracts pinkish red.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Scarlet O'
Hara' Bracts orange becoming dark red.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Smartipants'
Bracts small, magenta.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Snow Cap'
Bud sport of 'Mrs H.C. Buck'. Bracts pink to white and sometimes multicoloured. ['Mary Palmer']
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Tango'
Bracts slightly ruffled, orange at first, fading to pink; sometimes multicoloured.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Temple Fire'
Dwarf shrub with reddish purple bracts.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Texas Dawn'
Bud sport of 'Mrs Butt' with pale purple-pink bracts.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Thai Gold'
Bracts double, orange to carmine.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Turley's Special'
Leaves softly hairy. Bracts red.
Bougainvillea spectabilis 'Vera Blakeman'
Bracts crowded together, magenta.
