Bouganvillea Bracts

The bougainvillea may flower throughout the year and the flowers come in a medley of colors. The brightly colored papery flowers are actually bracts sheathing the slender stem. Bougainvillea's bracts come in a wide array of colors including every possible shade of red, pink, and purple, with newer varieties in yellow, orange, and white. The true flowers are insignificant white, trumpet shaped little things located in the center of the spectacular papery bracts. In Bougainvillea each cluster of three flowers is surrounded by three or six more colorful bracts.

In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often (but not always) different from foliage leaves, being smaller or of a different color or texture.
Some bracts are brightly colored and serve the function of attracting pollinators, either in concert with or instead of the perianth. An excellent example of this latter type of bract occurs in the Poinsettia plant (Euphorbia pulcherrima), which has small green flowers, surrounded by large scarlet bracts.