Botany

The two pharmaceutically used species of mallow that grow in the wild here, Malva sylvestris L., the wild mallow, and Malva neglecta Wallr., the common mallow or small cheese poplar, belong to the mallow family, Malvaceae.

The flowers of this family are radially symmetrical (radiate; the flower can be divided into two equal halves by at least three levels of symmetry) with five coloured, free petals that are twisted in the bud. These colourful petals are surrounded by a three-petalled, green outer calyx. In the centre of the flower, numerous stamens (male part of the flower) are fused together to form a tube. They surround the female part of the flower, the pistil. The flowers of the wild mallow are large. Their petals are two to four times as long as the calyx and are an intense pink to dark purple colour with dark longitudinal stripes. The flowers of the common mallow are somewhat smaller, pale purple to (almost) white with three dark longitudinal stripes and long petioles. Their petals are only twice as long as the calyx.

The leaves of the two mallow species mentioned above are stalked, palmately lobed and indented at the base. They are also crenate to notched at the edge and more or less hairy. The stem leaves of both species are three to seven-lobed, in Malva sylvestris about half lobed, in Malva neglecta only up to a quarter lobed.

The stem is often prostrate to arching, occasionally erect, branched and alternately leafed.

Both species of mallow delight us with their flowers from June to October. The numerous male stamens have grown together to form a tube surrounding the pistil and are full of prickly pollen.

The individual parts of the decaying fruit are disc-shaped and resemble a cheese wheel. They each contain one seed and can be propagated via this.

Distribution

The genus Malva comprises 30 species worldwide, twelve of which are found in Europe and seven in Austria.

The two described mallow species are native to the Mediterranean region, the whole of Europe, the Near East and Western Asia. They grow in dry to moderately fresh ruderal meadows (fallow land), such as roadsides, dry fields, in gardens and hedges, as well as on rubble heaps. As nitrogen feeders, they seek proximity to humans. Both species are common to scattered in the colline (flat to hilly) to submontane altitudinal zones and can be found in all of Austria's federal states.

Service

The preservation of diversity is very important to us, which is why we store around 5,400 samples of seeds and plants in our gene bank. With the gene bank for agricultural crops, medicinal and aromatic plants, we are making a significant contribution to the preservation of biodiversity.