The colorful ones get all the attention…

“Bougainvillea spectabilis” has brachts that come in spectacular colors of
• purple, http://phytoimages.siu.edu/imgs/paraman1/r/Nyctaginaceae_Bougainvillea_spectabilis_25201.html
• orange, http://phytoimages.siu.edu/imgs/Cusman1/r/Nyctaginaceae_Bougainvillea_spectabilis_39315.html
• red, http://phytoimages.siu.edu/imgs/Cusman1/r/Nyctaginaceae_Bougainvillea_spectabilis_39313.html
• pink, http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2012-12-04
but this species also “comes in” white.

The white leaves are “brachts,” not flower petals. “Brachts” are specialized leaves. There are flowers-to-be in this image, but none of them is open yet. The long green things *inside* the white brachts are what will open as tiny flowers; there are two on the left and the tops of three are visible on the right.

Species page at PhytoImages, http://phytoimages.siu.edu/cgi-bin/dol/dol_terminal.pl?taxon_name=Bougainvillea_spectabilis&rank=binomial

Photo taken at SIUC Plant Biology Greenhouse, http://www.plantbiology.siu.edu/facilities/plant-biology-facilities/greenhouse/index.php

1 year ago (“Desperation”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2013-05-14
2 years ago (“Bird’s-eye view”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2012-05-14
3 years ago (“Victoria & Dasha”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2011-05-14

[Caryn]

I've been missing your posts. Hard to believe you are in your fourth year! I'm struggling to complete a full year this time around.

Very pretty detail in the flowers here.

[Thom Mitchell]

@cmc1200 I'm struggling to keep up with just my own posts, Caryn, and I'm not happy about that! The job gets in the way of the important stuff like 365, right?? I have virtually no time to see the work of others and comment as I wish I could, but this could be changing soon. Read the couple of lines here, http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2014-05-02!

[Kate Klinck]

very pretty! they look like tissue paper!

[Rick Schies]

Oh but these are also eye catching.

[Thom Mitchell]

@harley84 One of the things I do in the greenhouse to show my appreciation to the staff is pick up fallen flowers and leaves. (There are several trash buckets/dust bins throughout the greenhouses.) A never-ending task is gathering up all the Bougainvillea brachts-and-flowers that fall. Turns out they *feel* like tissue paper, too!