Malva parviflora L.   Malvaceae   Mallow Family   Eurasia   Cheeseweed

                                          February Photo

Plant Characteristics: Erect subglabrous to pubescent annual, 2-5 dm. high, with ascending branches; lvs. roundish with 6-7 shallow lobes and a red spot as the base of the blade; 2-8 cm. wide, on somewhat longer petioles; fls. axillary, short-pedicelled; bractlets linear, 1-2 mm. long; calyx ca. 3mm. long at anthesis, enlarged, reticulate and accrescent in fr.; petals whitish to pinkish, 4-5 mm. long; carpels ca. 11, rugose-reticulate, thin-margined, denticulate on angles, pubescent on back in our form.

Habitat:  Common weed in orchards, waste places, almost throughout Calif.  Can be found in bloom most of the year.

Name:  Latin name from Greek, malache, referring to the emollient lvs.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 568).   Parviflora means small flowered.  (Dale 137).

General:  Common in the study area.  The photographed specimens were on the Castaway's Bluffs and North Star Beach.  (my comments).       Mallow was used by the ancient Greeks.  Pliny wrote that a spoonful of mallow would rid one of all diseases.  (Coon 150).      The slightly fuzzy forms of mallow are tasty but the raw texture is unpleasant to many people.  Cooked, however, it has good flavor.  The young green (cheeselike) fruits are good raw in salads, minus their husk.  Cooked with husks they can be used in many dishes much like peas or the seeds alone can be used in salads.  (Dale 137).     The plant and seed of cheeseweed when eaten by chickens cause pink whites of eggs.  (Robbins et al. 297).      M. parviflora has been found to accumulate free nitrates in quantities capable of causing death or distress in cattle.  (Fuller 386).      Several species of this common introduced herb can be found in Cahuilla territory, the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains and Colorado Desert.  The seeds of the mallow, available from February to late summer were eaten fresh.  The seeds were said to be a pleasant condiment-like food.  (Bean and Saubel 88).     Flowers nearly all year.  (Hickman, Ed. 754).       Delfina Cuero, a Kumeyaay or Southern Diegueno Indian, made the following comments about Malva parviflora in her autobiography:  "We made a medicinal tea from the dried buds for drinking when feverish; also boiled the whole plant for a bath.  As food, we boiled the young leaves for vegetables."  (Shipek 93).       Primarily used as a demulcent or emollient.  The fresh or dried leaves of Malva sp. make a soothing poultice, lessening pain and relieving and reducing inflammation.  The tea is pleasant and green tasting, a good (if slightly slimy) beverage anytime but especially soothing to sore throats and tonsillitis.  The tea is traditionally drunk in New Mexico to facilitate labor in childbirth and as a neonatal wash for skin irritations.  Up until the 1930's it was part of the official Species Emollientes, N.F. an accepted poultice mixture for breast and soft-tissue dressing.  (Moore, Medicinal Plants of the Desert and Canyon West 66).      About 30 species of the Old World; ours naturalized.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 568).

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 754; Munz, Calif. Flora 129; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 569; Robbins, et al. 297.

Photo Ref:  Mar 1 83 # 22,23; April 2 83 # 20A; Feb 2 84 # 7.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by F. Roberts.

First Found:  March 1983.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 113.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 12/26/04.  

                             April Photo                                                                           April Photo