Bougainvillea is native to South America's Amazon rain forest. There are four different species of these evergreen, thorny, woody vines, named in honor of Louis Antoine de Bougainville, a French military man who discovered the plant in 1768 in Brazil. It took several more decades before the tropical vine was actually grown in Europe; the first plant was brought to France in 1800. From these species have come numerous hybrids of varying sizes, from 2-foot-tall dwarf cultivars to vines that can exceed 30 feet tall. Source
