Gazing across that corn field at the blue hues of Echium [last entry] my eye was drawn to another plant dotted here and there. Its flowers were vivid magenta/purple. That colouration does not really feature in the palette of UK wildflowers. When I got close to one I realised it was a Mallow. Our Common Mallow (Malva sylvestris) is very common indeed but it has pink flowers.

 I surmise this is Malva sylvestris ssp. mauritiana which is native to parts of Southern Europe and North Africa (sometimes said to be a variety rather than a subspecies). It strengthens my guess that this field was sown with a wildflower mix which for some reason wasn't quite native. As noted the Echiums are the non-native annual rather than our native biennial. Instead of Common Mallow we have have the uncommon mauritiana.

 NB query for the botanical Latinists. The annual and biennial Echiums are both referred to as E. vulgare though they are notably different from each other. M. sylvestris has the distinction between species and subspecies/variety; surely the same could be said of the Echiums? Are they even the same species?

 The categorisation of species or ssp. or var. or cultivar seems to be moot in certain cases. Anyway, plants are what they are whereas botany was invented by humans!