The Bougainvillea is very common in gardens all over our province. They're most often this purple-pink colour, but sometimes you'll find ones with orange or even white flowers. The reason for me referring to them as evil tyrants of the garden is that they grow like demons and bear long, hard, sharp thorns that cause their victim to itch for hours after being pricked. Also, they tend to makes gardens look extremely messy once their pretty purple bits fall to the floor as ugly semi-translucent pieces of brown.
I have a love/hate relationship with the plant. And, for what it's worth, we have three in our garden. I have nightmares. :)