By Ashley Sim
KUCHING, Feb 8: When beautiful blooms appear on our roadside trees and shrubs, especially during the wetter months, our roads and streets are often awash with colour, and this particular flowering plant has been seen blooming beautifully along various roads in Kuching.
DayakDaily conducted checks around Kuching and discovered that the blooms may be seen along Jalan Tun Jugah, as well as in Petra Jaya, where there are many pots of bougainvilleas around Wisma Bapa Malaysia and the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly (DUN) complex.
Bougainvilleas, known as bunga kertas in Malay, come in a range of colours, the most common of which is magenta, though they also come in pink, purple, orange, yellow, and white.
They have stiff stems with thorns covered in heart-shaped leaves and grow quickly. The paper-like structures are a modified leaf known as a bract, which conceals the true flowers of bougainvillaea, which are small, trumpet-shaped white and yellow blooms.
This sun-loving flowering plant is perfect for roadside cultivation and is one of the few flowering plants that can add spectacular masses of colour along roads and streets.
Bougainvillea is one of the few plants in Malaysia which blooms spectacularly despite the country’s year-round hot and wet climate.
Lim, a 45-year-old e-hailing driver who frequents Jalan Tun Jugah and the rounds around it, said: “The bougainvillaeas are so beautiful and vibrant. These colourful blossoms only caught my eye recently. The flowers certainly brighten up the streets around here.”
Meanwhile, Sarah, 25, who lives in Petra Jaya, commented on how lovely and refreshing the blooms on the bougainvillaeas planted around Wisma Bapa Malaysia are. — DayakDaily
