Twisting bougainvillea?

[Bonsai Nut]

An interesting subject came up in last night's Mirai video. The guest instructor started talking about how bougainvillea is a vine that twists around other trees/plants as it grows.

I have never seen this behavior in any of my bougainvillea - or any in our broader neighborhood. It is quite a common landscape plant here, where it grows as a mounding bush. I have never seen a bougainvillea twist around anything compared to, for example, ivy or jasmine, which I also have and which twists like mad. My bougies all throw straight growth - through other bushes, through bamboo, through citrus - and even when physically touching other trees and bushes will not twist around them.

I went online last night and tried to find an image, anywhere, of bougainvillea twisting around anything, and couldn't find a photo. Several sites that I visited specifically mention bougainvilleas (with climbing roses) as "scramblers" - plants with long, flexible stems that may look like vines, but are unable to climb on their own. If you want them to grow on a trellis, for example, you have to tie them. Do any of you bougainvillea fans have a twisting / climbing bougie?

 

[GrimLore]

Do any of you bougainvillea fans have a twisting / climbing bougie?

Never had one here as they need to be chopped and brought in for Winter. Down South I have never seen one, even growing up the side of a house that was not on some kind of trellis and trained to it. Glad they don't,

I would however be interested in trying one if there is such a "type"

Grimmy

 

[Starfox]

I find their tap root likes to twist around on itself a bit but in general my observations are quite similar to yours. I had never thought of it though until now.
I know they sell those awful twisted weaved trunks but that is purely man made.
We have or had 2 biggish climbing Bougainvillea, both are clumps at the base which you would think would make for a perfect opportunity for them to naturally twist together. One of them I have dug and potted and when I cut back noticed their is scarring from where the trunks rubbed together but they definitely didn't twist around on itself.
The other one is exactly the same but still in the ground. No doubt you can manipulate it to twist but it doesn't appear to be natural.
That said they do twist through lattices and fences easy enough but surely that is just taking advantage of the space available.

 

[c54fun]

An interesting subject came up in last night's Mirai video. The guest instructor started talking about how bougainvillea is a vine that twists around other trees/plants as it grows.

I have never seen this behavior in any of my bougainvillea - or any in our broader neighborhood. It is quite a common landscape plant here, where it grows as a mounding bush. I have never seen a bougainvillea twist around anything compared to, for example, ivy or jasmine, which I also have and which twists like mad. My bougies all throw straight growth - through other bushes, through bamboo, through citrus - and even when physically touching other trees and bushes will not twist around them.

I went online last night and tried to find an image, anywhere, of bougainvillea twisting around anything, and couldn't find a photo. Several sites that I visited specifically mention bougainvilleas (with climbing roses) as "scramblers" - plants with long, flexible stems that may look like vines, but are unable to climb on their own. If you want them to grow on a trellis, for example, you have to tie them. Do any of you bougainvillea fans have a twisting / climbing bougie?

I have 4 and none twist at all. The one in ground and in a container I let grow out a lot. Sometimes will have over 2 foot+ stem shooting out. No twisting at all even when making its way threw the foliage.

 

[twisted trees]

Some people just talk out of their a**.

 

[michaelj]

Mine all grow spears. You can wrap them when the shoots are green, but their nature is to grow perfectly straight.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Some people just talk out of their a**.

I was mystified by his comment. He went on to draw a picture on the whiteboard of a bougainvillea tendril wrapping around another object. When I mentioned something about it in the chat channel someone in Florida said he saw it all the time in Florida... so I was completely confused.

Other than those two comments, it appears the rest of the world has never seen a bougainvillea shoot wrap around something(?) I was almost hoping someone would prove me wrong because a climbing bougainvillea sounds kinda cool

 

[just.wing.it]

Well bougie is a vine right?
I thought I've seen pics online of buildings with bougie growing up the side like hedera vine.
Although the only bougie I've seen in person is the stick in a pot on my deck.

Edit: yeah just check google images...they'll grow on anything.

 

[petegreg]

I don't know how the guest meant it, but I could see climbing bougies in Egypt and in some Mediterranean countries, climbing walls, covering balconies... I believe it's a vine for sure.

https://www.google.sk/search?num=10.....1..64.mobile-gws-img..2.1.332.3.lXGU670bjOc

 

[Smoke]

He was probably confused with wisteria....the scourage of a patio or house!

 

[PiñonJ]

Here are a couple I saw climbing walls in Greece. They are wrapping around the buildings on their own.

 

[just.wing.it]

Yeah, they have thorns to help grip stuff, I suppose if you planted one at the base of a tree, it may spiral up it.

 

[mattspinniken]

I see them growing up fences and buildings in Puerto Rico quite a bit.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Yeah, they have thorns to help grip stuff, I suppose if you planted one at the base of a tree, it may spiral up it.

No. Spiraling is a very specific type of plant growth. Only a very few types of plants can do it. Think about it - a plant has to be adapted to sense an object and then has to grow towards it, and around it - including the ability to grow towards, and then away from light. When you think about it, it is a pretty complicated process, and mystified plant scientists for years. After all how can plants "see" something nearby? How do they react to touch - when they don't have a nervous system? They only figured it out in the last 20 years or so...

Here are a couple I saw climbing walls in Greece. They are wrapping around the buildings on their own.

I would consider those "leaning" plants, in the same way that the bougainvilleas I have planted next to a fence in my yard aren't climbing it, but they are using it as something to lean against as they grow higher. Bougainvilleas are as much a vine as a "climbing" rose (which everyone knows won't climb jack unless it can lean against it or unless you tie or otherwise artificially adhere it to something).

Here is a short article about the differences between how plants "climb".

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I see them growing up fences and buildings in Puerto Rico quite a bit.

Show me spiraling growth - anywhere. Not just "leaning" against something - actively wrapping around it like a grape vine. I have tons of mounding bougainvilleas leaning against fences (or my house) but that doesn't mean they will wrap around a pole.

It may sound like I am being anal here - but this was in direct response to what happened during the Mirai stream last night. The guest instructor said bougainvillea was a vine and that if it touched something it would wrap around it like a barbershop pole or peppermint candy cane. He drew a picture of it on the white board. When I said "bougainvillea doesn't grow like that" someone in the chat channel corrected me and said that yes, in Florida, it definitely did.

So I can say I have yet to see a photo, of any bougainvillea, anywhere, showing spiral growth. I had wondered if maybe there was a sub-species or something out there, but it sounds like there isn't and that people get confused about what they are actually seeing.

 

[cockroach]

Just my 2c, for the sake of learning.

Could the speaker not have meant growing up and through a "host" tree. I have noticed here and in dry tropical climates, that bougainvillea bushes/mounds send out quite a few leaders growing upwards. The could grow on either side of a tree giving the impression of growing around. I have seen quite a few almost take over another tree by growing "leaning' up it. Once inside the canopy and closer to light source, it sends out many branches that could give the appearance of growing around it.

 

[flyinmanatee]

Pic I came across like no other. Don't know of it's spiraling per say. I just haven't came across images in the wild at all. Even this is not a native habitat.

​

 

[barrosinc]

Must of meant wisteria??

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Must of meant wisteria??

That's what Smoke said. Except... he was doing a demo on Bougainvillea. I would have thought it was a slip of the tongue if he hadn't been so specific, and then gone and drawn a picture of it It's no big deal really... I certainly have enough bougainvillea and know how they grow. I just got excited because I thought someone had a different kind of bougie somewhere

 

[mattspinniken]

Show me spiraling growth - anywhere

hmmm I think you may have me here. Spiraling growth not so much.