I'd be interested in whatever else is growing in the pot, I can see the lower limbs of something with thickish branches. This is one of the broomrapes, Lathraea squamaria, common name Toothwort and its parasitic, usually on the roots of some woody plants such as Hazel and Beech - never seen it pop up in a pot before, usually in shady hedgerows. More info in the link below if you're interested

http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/plants-fungi/lathraea-squamaria-toothwort

Interesting, not what you would expect.

Bamboo is this the purple version of this plant if so the link I found says it is becoming popular as a garden plant. http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/plants-fungi/lathraea-clandestina-purple-toothwort

Scotsgran, that's exactly the link I provided in my answer...

Thank you all for the information, bamboo it is in a pot with verbena and freesia. This is in my holiday home in Turkey. I have had the verbena in the pot for a couple of years. Shall I try to get rid of the toothwort? I don't want to start an epidemic! Thanks again bamboo, scotsgran and bulbaholic for your interest. I have asked my friends here and no one had the answer, not even google! So glad I found this site.

I would leave it alone - its such a rare thing, and you won't even know its there most of the time, only when the flowers appear, and it won't start an 'epidemic' at all. Can't say how long it will survive in the pot anyway, given its parasitic on roots. Weird though, that the only thing in the pot is Verbena and that isn't really classed as a 'woody' plant, though the stems on yours do look slightly woody...its certainly not parasitic on bulbs.

Thank you Bamboo I found the link by following your link. It showed a not very pretty looking plant. I scrolled to the foot of the page and found a link to related species and got the purple toothwort. I added the information because it was a more direct way of finding out about the plant. No offense intended.

Oh blimey, I wasn't in the least offended in any way Scotsgran, sorry if you thought I was - I knew you'd asked me a question about the plant and added a link and I thought it was the same as the one I'd posted, so why would I need to answer your question, that's how it went in my head. But now that I look closely (with the right specs on instead of the wrong ones, like I had before), I can see the link you provided isn't the same as mine - close, but not the same. And having followed your link, to answer your original query, no, its not the plant shown in the link you provided - that is as it looks, much more vibrant in colour and a somewhat different form.

The pic provided in link I posted isn't a very good one of this plant, there are better online pics of it, see if I can find one...

Well, having looked, there's an enormous range of them, from palest pink through to quite dark lilac, all in different stages of development and none of 'em look exacty like this one, so maybe I'm wrong. No idea what else it could be though, wish I'd posted the other one I found yesterday instead, which looked much more like this one pictured here. I chose the Kew link because it had some good info...and I can't find the other one now... I'm going to PM Seaburngirl, get her to take a look in case it's not what I said.

Orobanche purpurea : purple broomrape is the closest I can get to it.

but either way it is rare and probably it came in the composted material. They take years to flower.

Yes, definitely a broomrape and not a toothwort.

Ah, thanks Seaburngirl, knew you'd know... glad I asked now, specially as you and Landgirl have confirmed a correct ID (and not my ID either!)

Annfrank - special thanks to Scotsgran - if she hadn't queried precisely which plant it was, I would never have thought twice and asked someone else. So now you know for definite, its Orobanche... link below, its German, but has images... darker lilac than yours, but that's what it is

https://www.infoflora.ch/de/flora/1995-orobanche-purpurea.html

A problem shared lol!. Its nice to know it is not dependant on any other plant. Bamboo I have always been curious. It came in handy yesterday at the Edinburgh SRGC show. I took along some plants for the 'Not for competition' class. Pcw gave me an Androsace but the label had become unreadable. One of the Judges was Ger van den Beuken from Belgium. He was not only able to give me its ID but also said it was a beautiful and rare specimen of the plant. He also told me to guarantee the survival of this plant it must be propagated from cuttings as Androsace are a bit promiscuous and it might not come true from any seed I get from it. No pressure then.

Well it is dependent, its still a parasitic plant, Scotsgran, all the broomrapes are.

And good luck with stopping promiscuity, wherever and however it occurs, lol! Force of nature, that... But you'll probably get cuttings to work.