Is this the dreaded mare's tail?

[TheSandHurtsMyFeelings]

It's in a scruffy and very slightly wild part of the garden, a good way from 'proper' planting, but even so I'd prefer it didn't spread! Is it what I think it is? Apps aren't being helpful.

It's a weed (not sure what one) but it's not mare's tail.

No I don't think so, the photo is rather blurry on my screen but it looks a little bit like purple toadflax.

Edit - I managed to see the pic more clearly and I think it is toadflax. Native wild flower and very pretty.

No- doesn't look like ours. At this time of year ours looks like thin asparagus spears coming out of the ground.

Oh, really? That's encouraging! I quite like toadflax.

It is a very weedy part of the garden but I tend to let it do its own thing as sometimes it produces beautiful surprises. The soil is shit and it gets full sun all day long so wildflowers like it there! I'm slowly reclaiming it with herbs, lavender etc but I'm happy to let it go wild as long as there's nothing too annoying / invasive.

Purple toadflax is lovely, it can get quite tall too. They look really nice as fillers in the border. The plants are fairly short-lived and then die back. They do seed everywhere, but are easy to pull up if they aren't where you want them.

We found some in our garden when we moved here over 30 years ago, and I let its descendants do their own thing. Sometimes we get a surprise pink one.

No it's lovely toadflax. If you are lucky it will self seed in your garden every year.

No thank God!

Veronica? Pink or purple flowers?

Purple toadflax is also the food plant for the strikingly-coloured caterpillars of the Toadflax Brocade Moth. I found some of the caterpillars on the plants in my garden once, and looked them up.

edited for spelling - I have a splinter in my finger making typing a challenge!

No definitely not, we have it all over our garden and it's much smaller than this.

I've got some veronica elsewhere and its leaves are quite a bit floppier and longer.

I love it when the garden springs a surprise!

Those apps are worse than useless though - told me it was rosemary. Even I can identify bloody rosemary!

Those apps are worse than useless though

You have NO idea how happy this makes me!!!😀

Ooh good intel ... I have lots of purple toadflax that always seeds around, I love it and will be crossing my fingers for these visitors!

The sort of wild native version is speedwell which has finer leaves, I have a ton of it, pops up everywhere, difficult to tell from your pics but when it flowers it may be clearer what it is.

There are many species of speedwell/Veronica wild in the UK, with a variety of leaf shapes. Of the top of my head I can think of thyme-leaved, ivy-leaved! Heath, wood, field and germander, and also brooklime.

Also several species of Linaria (toadflax), of which the showiest is probably Common Toadflax, Linaria vulgaris, with yellow snapdragon flowers with contrasting dark yellow lips. OP’s picture is very clearly Linaria pupurea.