1
$\begingroup$

I don't know the name of the plant. It's a common house plant in Bangladesh. What interests me about its flower is the colorful leaflike structure that probably functions as a petal. What is this structure homologous to? Petal, sepal, bract or leaf?

enter image description here

$\endgroup$

1 Answer 1

1
$\begingroup$

The plant looks like something in the genus Bougainvillea. These plants are native to South America, but found as introduced ornamentals in many places.

The colored petal-like organs are bracts (see the Wikipedia link above). The entire structure is an inflorescence with the flower buds growing out from the surface of the colored bracts — you should eventually see those flowers open and you could then dissect them confirm that the usual flower structures are present.

This is a well labeled diagram: from: https://benkolstad.net/?p=7010

$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .