Common mallow, also known as high mallow, is a European wildflower with showy rose-purple flowers striped with dark veins. Grown in US gardens for its long summer bloom, it has escaped to roadsides, fields, and waste ground in many parts of the country. In the US, the name "common mallow" more often means cheeseweed (Malva neglecta), a relative with much smaller, paler flowers.
Appearance
- Growth form
- A or short-lived perennial, 16 in–5 ft (40 cm–1.5 m) tall, with upright, softly hairy stems.
- Leaves
- Alternate, long-stalked, roughly round leaves with 3–7 shallow, rounded lobes and toothed edges.
- Flowers
- Rose-purple flowers 1¼–2½ in (3–6 cm) across, with five petals marked by darker veins, in small clusters where the leaves meet the stem.
- Flowering time
- Late spring through summer: June to August around Chicago, and as early as May in the Southeast.
- Fruit
- A flat ring of 10 or more hard, wrinkled, pitted seed segments that looks like a little peeled tangerine. The seeds are nicknamed "cheeses."
Look-alikes
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Roadsides
- Fields and meadows
- Waste ground
- Gardens
- Range
- Native to Europe, North Africa, and western Asia. In the US it escapes from gardens and turns up on roadsides and disturbed ground in a wide band of the country, from California and Utah to New England (all six states), though it is only occasional in most places.
- Preferred conditions
- Disturbed or maintained ground such as roadsides, railways, meadows, and fallow fields.
- Flowering
Flowers Jun–Aug
Flowers Jun–Aug
Growing it
- Care
- Grown as an easy cottage-garden flower for its long summer bloom; it reseeds readily. Cultivars include the boldly striped 'Zebrina'.
Name and classification
- About the name
- There are two main forms: the typical wild form (M. s. sylvestris) and the sturdier, darker-flowered Mauritanian mallow (M. s. mauritiana), which some botanists treat as its own species or as a cultivar group.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- The color name "mauve" comes from the French word for mallow and the color of its petals.
- Young leaves and shoots are eaten around the Mediterranean; in Egypt they go into a stew called khobeiza.
- Dried flowers make a tea that brews blue and turns pink when lemon is added.
More species to explore
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