According to the Singapore Infopedia, the scientific names for bougainvillea, a popular sub-tropical and tropical flower, are "Bougainvillea glabra" and "Bougainvillea spectabilis." Bougainvillea belongs to the Nyctaginaceae family, which contains 28 genera and 250 species.
B. glabra and B. spectabilis were crossbred and hybridized to create many other hybrid varieties of the ornamental flower. The flower was discovered by French navigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville in Brazil during the 18th century. As of 2014, in South America, there are 14 related species of bougainvillea. "Glabra" means "smooth" in Latin, which describes the smooth appearance of B. glabra flowers. Bougainvilleas can be trained as scramblers or trees, and they can be cut and shaped in a variety of other ways.
