Mallow Family

Malvaceae (mal-VA-see-ee)

Iconic Features

• Broad leaves, usually palmately lobed
• Showy funnel- or saucer-shaped flowers
• Flower parts in fives
• Numerous stamens fused into a tube

Description (Jepson)

• Eudicotyledons (eudicots) – a major lineage of flowering plants including most plants traditionally described as dicots and generally characterized by
  • 2 seed leaves (dicotyledon)
  • Netted (reticulate) leaf venation
  • Flower parts in fours and fives
  • Pollen grains with 3 pores (tricolpate)
  • Vascular bundles in stem arranged in a ring
  • Taproot system
• Annuals, herbaceous perennials, shrubs, and small trees
• Leaves
  • Alternate (1 leaf at each junction with stem) and simple (not divided into leaflets)
  • Usually palmately lobed and toothed
  • Often with minute starlike (stellate) hairs
• Flowers
  • Inflorescence (flower arrangement) in many forms
    • Often with bracts (modified leaves) at base
    • Usually bisexual, radially symmetric, funnel-shaped flowers
      • 5 petals and 5 partially-fused sepals (usually green, outer flower parts)
      • Numerous fused stamens (male flower parts) usually form a tube surrounding the pistil (female flower part)
    • Ovary superior (above the attachment of other flower parts)
  • Fruit is usually a capsule (a dry, multi-chambered fruit that splits open at maturity) with many wedge-shaped segments, like a cheese wheel

Notes

• Approximately 4,000 species worldwide, especially in warm climates
  • Includes hollyhocks, hibiscus, cheeseweed, checkermallow, and flannel bush
  • Also includes the economically-important plants cocoa (Theobroma cacao) and cotton (Gossypium species)
• Most species have mucilaginous vegetation with natural gums, which become gelatinous when crushed
  • The Old World herb Althaea officinalis, which grows in marshes, is the original source of marshmallows (Petkewich 2006)
    • Ancient Egyptians were known to use the boiled root pulp as a cough medicine and confection
    • 19th-century confectioners whipped and molded the root sap into a fluffy candy
    • Today, most “marshmallows” are made from gelatin
  • The seed pods of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), which become slimy when cooked, are used in some gumbos
• Scientific and common name from the included genus Malva, from the Greek malache, “to soften,” referring to the leaves and a soothing skin ointment made from the seeds
• Represented by 3 species at Edgewood

Specific References

Petkewich, R. 2006, April 17. What’s that stuff? Marshmallow. Chemical & Engineering News: Science & Technology 84: 41.

General References

Calflora Database. 2014. Berkeley, California.

Calscape. 2018. California Native Plant Society.

Charters, M.L. 2015. California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations.

Charters, M.L. 2017. Southern California Wildflowers: Guide to the Pronunciation of Specific, Generic and Family Names.

Corelli, T. 2004. Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve (2nd. ed.). Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay, California.

Elpel, T.J. 2013. Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, Pony, Montana.

Flora of North America. efloras.org.

Harris, J.G., and M.W. Harris. 2013. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah.

Keator, G. 2009. California Plant Families. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.

Native American Ethnobotany DB.

Regents of the University of California. Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium. University of California, Berkeley.

Browse Some Edgewood Plants in this Family