Bougainvilae in Masca#
![Bougonvillae in Masca Bougonvillae in Masca](/attach/Geography/Europe/Spain/Pictures/Tenerife/Bougainvillea_in_Masca/scaled-850x563-A1_%28105%29_Bougonvillae_in_Masca.jpg)
Bougonvillae in Masca, 1997, © Markus Duschek
Bougainvillea are plants with thorny ornamental vines and come as bushes or trees with flower-like spring leaves near its flowers. The vine species grow anywhere from 1 to 12 m, scrambling over other plants with their spiky thorns.
They are evergreen where rainfall occurs all year, or deciduous if there is a dry season.
The actual flower of the plant is small and generally white, but each cluster of three flowers is surrounded by three or six leaves that look like a flower, with colours varying from pink, magenta, purple, red, orange, white, to yellow.
Bougainvillea are sometimes referred to as "paper flowers" because the pseudo-flowers (leaves, "bracts") are thin and papery.