bougainvillea boogie #3

In addition to photographing flowers for my recent autumn flowers collections, I’ve also been trying to record the many examples of bougainvillea that I come across when cycling around the New Territories. Unfortunately, there have been almost no examples in the last couple of months to match the spectacular displays that I’ve seen in recent years. Instead, the solid mass of colour that I associate with this common tropical plant has been distinctly patchy, broken up by large areas of green.

However, when I checked the folder in which I keep my photos of bougainvillea, I was surprised to discover that I’d been accumulating photos over the past couple of years with the intention of posting them once I’d amassed enough. So here they are.

The first photo was probably taken in one of the villages south of Sha Tau Kok Road that make up the area known as Lung Yeuk Tau:

The next photo was taken in a public park adjoining a private housing estate just north of the floating restaurant in Shatin and shows what is probably the most spectacular bougainvillea display that I’ve seen anywhere:

The next three photos were taken on the same day as the previous image, but I cannot now recognize the locations:

I included a photo of the next specimen in Bougainvillea Boogie, but if you compare, this is a more impressive display:

And this is an example just around the corner to the left of the previous location:

Both the previous photos were taken along an unnamed road that forms part of ‘the final frontier’ bike ride, east of Fanling.

The next two photos were taken of quasi-industrial yards in the same general area:

The next two photos are of the same plant, taken from different angles—something that is usually impossible. I don’t recognize the location:

The next two photos are also of the same plant taken from different angles. The second photo reveals a third example of bougainvillea on the opposite side of the road:

In between taking the two previous photos, I took this one, which is of no help to me in remembering the location:

The next photo is also of a quasi-industrial yard, although exactly where this was taken has also been forgotten:

The same comment applies to the next photo, which was taken on the same day as the previous one:

The remaining photos were taken in the last couple of months, this one in the village of Chau Tau, northwest of Fanling:

Judging by other photos taken on the same day, the next photo was taken somewhere northeast of Fanling, but even if I look at the uncropped photo, I’m struggling to identify the exact location:

Both the next two photos were taken in the village of Heung Tuen Wai, which is located northeast of Fanling and was in the frontier closed area until 2016:

I wrote about this interesting village in Disappearing World #3.

The final photo was taken on a narrow path that I walk or cycle along regularly close to the walled village of Tung Kok Wai. I’m not sure why I haven’t included it in previous bougainvillea reports, because I must have photographed this bougainvillea before:

By the way, in case you didn’t realize, what you’re seeing in these photos are not flowers! Bougainvillea Boogie explains this apparent conundrum, and in case you think that bougainvillea is always some shade of red, Bougainvillea Boogie #2 provides quite a few examples in other colours.