Bloom Cycle of Bougainvillea (Bogan Villa)

I had been seeing these bushy and thorny plants flaunting bunches of deep bright pink petals on the compounds of villas in the surroundings of my home town Udyavar, in Udupi, Manipal, Mangalore etc. but had never bothered to take a close look at them. To that matter, just recently learnt that these generously growing flower plants are called “Bougainvillea” or “Bogan Villa” as popularly referred.

Here in U.A.E. (Arabian Gulf) at my office, every time I had to visit the upper level, I would get to see this lonely little plant kept at the entrance door, planted in a pot. My curiosity gained momentum when the plant began to show what it is worth. I began to monitor the bloom cycle of this plant day by day. I was always under the opinion that these pink petals are the actual flowers of the plant. My belief turned false when I noticed tiny little bright white flowers popped out in between the pink petals.

Here is sequential monitoring of Bougainvillea bloom:

There is lot written on Bougainvillea or Bogan Villa in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainvillea.