Species
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Bougainvillea glabra Choisy

Bougainvillea, Kahle Bougainvillea (DE); Trinitaria roja (ES); Paperflower (EN), Naha trójnička, Paper Flower

Climate known 46 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Bougainvillea glabra, the lesser bougainvillea or paperflower, is the most common species of bougainvillea used for bonsai. The epithet 'glabra' comes from Latin and means "bald".

Text from Wikipedia, “Bougainvillea glabra”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Bougainvillea

Bougainvillea is a genus of thorny ornamental vines, bushes, and trees belonging to the family Nyctaginaceae. They are native to the tropical forests of South America. There are between 4 and 22 species in the genus. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Bougainvillea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Nyctaginaceae
Described by
Choisy
Native to
Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South
Wild records
426 in range· 379 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Feb, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1425mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 219 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–37DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1425 mm a year, wettest January at 219 mm, driest August at 41 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 6.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Bougainvillea arborea Glaz.; Bougainvillea brachycarpa Heimerl; Bougainvillea formosa W.Bull; Bougainvillea glabra var. acutibracteata Heimerl; Bougainvillea glabra var. alba Mendes & Viégas and 9 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1006 mm of 1425 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.6 °C against a yearly mean of 21.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1425 mm a year, wettest January at 219 mm, driest August at 41 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1425 mm a year at the habitat, 1006 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 219 mm, driest August at 41 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 839 mm to 1879 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 6.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 6.2 °C, the absolute minimum -1.1 °C, 3 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 13.5 °C in July (across the envelope cells 9.9 °C to 20.3 °C), warmest day 28.0 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 23 °C in Jun to 28 °C in Feb; mean night from 14 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1425 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 368 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost37.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 23–37RH 61–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 368 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 25–3028 / 26–3128 / 25–3026 / 23–2924 / 20–2823 / 19–2723 / 18–2625 / 20–2826 / 21–2927 / 23–3027 / 24–3028 / 25–30
Night °C20 / 18–2420 / 18–2420 / 17–2418 / 16–2316 / 12–2214 / 11–2114 / 10–2015 / 11–2016 / 13–2118 / 15–2219 / 16–2320 / 17–23
Rain mm219 / 82–301170 / 77–226157 / 105–233104 / 66–18982 / 31–17058 / 14–15552 / 9–14741 / 16–12082 / 21–156125 / 38–174148 / 44–221187 / 67–290
DLI37 / 34–4137 / 34–4034 / 31–3629 / 24–3324 / 19–3123 / 17–2924 / 18–3028 / 22–3532 / 26–3836 / 31–4037 / 34–4137 / 34–41
RH %64 / 61–6764 / 61–6764 / 61–6863 / 60–6763 / 58–6663 / 56–6662 / 54–6561 / 51–6561 / 53–6561 / 56–6762 / 59–6763 / 60–68

Each figure is the median across the 368 grid cells holding the 414 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2247:2618 (-22.375, -49.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 368 distinct grid cells holding the 414 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2247:2618 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -22.50_-49.375, lapse-corrected -3 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 569 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBrazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South· introduced: Spain, Italy, Algeria, Canary Is., Cameroon, Ascension, Comoros, Mozambique Channel Is., Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Nicobar Is., New Zealand North, Society Is., Tubuai Is., Nicaragua, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil West-Central, Juan Fernández Is.
Kew's description“climbing shrub or liana” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-23.408, -46.655 · in the densest population, 263 records (62% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 426 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 379 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 1102 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 12 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 426 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Bougainvillea glabraBougainvillea glabraBougainvillea glabraBougainvillea glabraBougainvillea glabraBougainvillea glabraBougainvillea glabraBougainvillea glabra

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) rafa perazzolo, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Emily Geest, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Bougainvillea glabra, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

New Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Obtained from Extracted Bracts of Bougainvillea Glabra and Spectabilis Betalain Pigments by Different Purification Processes
A.R. Hernández-Martínez, Miriam Estévez, S. Vargas, Fracisco Quintanilla (2011) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Optimization of ultrasound-assisted extraction of natural pigments from Bougainvillea glabra flowers
J. Prakash Maran, Bhanu Priya, C. Vigna Nivetha (2014) · Industrial Crops and Products
Betacyanins from bracts of Bougainvillea glabra
Susanne Heuer, Sabine Richter, Jörg W. Metzger, Victor Wray (1994) · Phytochemistry
Extraction optimization and characterization of water soluble red purple pigment from floral bracts of Bougainvillea glabra
Shiv Narayan Amit Kumar, Sunil Kumar Ritesh, G. Sharmila, Chandrasekaran Muthukumaran (2013) · Arabian Journal of Chemistry
Betalain pigments as natural photosensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells: the effect of dye pH on the photoelectric parameters
Kasim Uthman Isah, Umaru Ahmadu, Adamu Idris, Mohammed Isah Kimpa (2014) · Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Green preparation of reduced graphene oxide by Bougainvillea glabra flower extract and sensing application
G. Balu Mahendran, S. Jothi Ramalingam, John Bosco Balaguru Rayappan, Srinivasan Kesavan (2020) · Journal of Materials Science Materials in Electronics
Sand fly feeding on noxious plants: a potential method for the control of leishmaniasis.
Yosef Schlein, Raymond L. Jacobson, G C MÃ ⁄ ller (2001) · American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Paraquat exposure-induced Parkinson’s disease-like symptoms and oxidative stress in Drosophila melanogaster: Neuroprotective effect of Bougainvillea glabra Choisy
Jefferson J. Soares, Daniela Teixeira Rodrigues, Mayara B. Gonçalves, Maurício C. Lemos (2017) · Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy
Biomimicking Stretchable Organic Electrochemical Transistor
Yuanzhe Li, Naixiang Wang, Anneng Yang, Haifeng Ling (2019) · Advanced Electronic Materials
Bougainvillea glabra (choisy): A comprehensive review on botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicity
Hammad Saleem, Atif Usman, Mohamad Fawzi Mahomoodally, Nafees Ahemad (2020) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Natural Plant Extracts as Acid-Base Indicator and Determination of Their pKa Value
N. Kapilraj, S. Keerthanan, M. Sithambaresan (2019) · Journal of Chemistry

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Bougainvillea 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 217 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.