Breeding and Seed Production of Ornamental Crops (2+1)

History of Bougainvillea

History of improvement of Bougainvillea

Bougainvillea:

• Bougainvillea is grown widely throughout the country. In all, more than 150 cultivars have been developed in bougainvillea. Of these, a large number of cultivars have been developed at IARI New Delhi, IIHR Bangalore and NBRI, Lucknow.
• The Bougainvillea improvement work in India started with the introduction of a few varieties by the Agri Horticultural Societies at Calcutta and Madras. 'Scarlet Queen' named by Sir Percy Lancaster in 1920 is probably the first Bougainvillea raised in India.
• At IARI New Delhi, 5 highly floriferous cultivars were released in 1959 named 'Dr. R. R. Pal', 'Sonnet' 'Spring Festival', Summer Time' and 'Stanza'. Of these, 'Dr. R.R. Pal' is very vigorous and also makes a good rootstock for budding bougainvillea varieties otherwise difficult to propagate.
• At NBRI Lucknow, some important cvs. developed are viz. 'Wajid Ali Shah', 'Begum Sikander' and 'Mary Palmer Special'. Other varieties developed at Lucknow include 'Dr. B.P. Pal' and 'Tetra Mrs. Mc Clean', this work has also led to the development of varieties with blotched bracts as in 'Chitra'.
• Bougainvillea breeding work at IIHR Hessaraghatta has also resulted in release of six cultivars namely 'Chitravati' 'Dr. H.B. Singh', 'Jawahar Lal Nehru', 'Purple Wonder', 'Sholay' and 'Usha'.
  
• The Division of Floriculture & Landscaping IARI has been designated as the 'International Registration Authority for Bougainvillea Cultivars' and the first check list describing more than 300 cultivars of bougainvillea was published during 1981.